Comments on: A LONG, COLD WINTER

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:22:41 +0000

Well Some guy, at some point you have to believe somebody. You can’t plug your fingers in your ears and go “Na-na-na-na-na-na….I caaan’t heaaar yooou.”

I try to read the most non-partisan publications I can find. They ARE out there believe it or not.
The Economist (a GREAT publication that has been warning about the real estate bubble for YEARS), The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and The Financial Times are hardly Birkenstock-wearing, granola crunching, Michael Moore-loving radical eyed lefty sources.

By: Some guy

Some guy — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:16:25 +0000

You’re letting the same media, that has been trying to talk down the economy for YEARS, tell you what the real facts are in this situation? Give me a break!

You know, I’ve never tasted sand. Since you have your head in it, maybe you can fill me in on what it tastes like.

ed.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:13:52 +0000

I hate this bailout too, but what’s the alternative? Do nothing and let market conditions play out? We’re literally dealing with the fate of the American financial system. Is ideology a suicide pact? By sticking with libertarian free market principles, are you willing to let the economy crash?
The best case scenario, from what I’m reading, is that we have a “lost decade” like Japan had in the 1990’s, which they’re still trying to dig themselves out of. Actually, the similarities are eerie. Japan likewise had a giant speculative real estate and credit bubble, followed by sclerotic lending, negative and zero growth and high unemployment.

By: Some guy

Some guy — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:36:09 +0000

I think this is all a joke. It’s media whipped hysteria. Us normal people are so stupid for being taken in by the street corner hustlers like Frank and Dodd. I say we do NOTHING. Don’t let them get away with stealing our money to give to ACORN and La Raza.

By: Why is ACORN in The Bailout? | Right Voices

Why is ACORN in The Bailout? | Right Voices — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:12:17 +0000

[...] Right Wing Nut House » A LONG, COLD WINTER [...]

By: Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator

Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:22:27 +0000

Congress is wary of the push to bail out Wall Street…

Lawmakers are watching the stock market as an indicator of whether to buy Bush’s plan….

By: vb

vb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:55:37 +0000

Rick,
I live in Germany, so I’ll give you my take: Yes, the Germans are angry because they have been complaining about the lack of transparency of our investment banking system. They have urged us to better regulate things and try to work toward some kind od international standard. German banks have lost money, and the government is expecting negative fallout for the economy as a whole. That is the factual picture.

There is more though: Elections will be held next year, pitting Steinbrueck’s Social Democrats (SPD) against Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).To date, the CDU is way ahead, partly because of serious pressure on the SPD from the Left Party (made of of old communists from the East and populist left-wing former SPD members from the West). The Left has been attacking economic reforms put in place by Schroeder. The more realistic SPD leaders know that the reforms were necessary and are trying hard to defend themselves. They will keep advertising how much more responsible they are than those preditory capitalists, the AMIs. Since Merkel is also upset by our failure to deal with the situation, she will hardly defend us.

The reporting here blames the whole mess on the US government (Regierung); however in German that word really means administration. No one has mentioned that McCain sponsored legislation to address the mortgage problem or that Bush has been urging congressional action for years. Once again we are getting a blame Bush (and McCain because he a Republican) situation. The faults of the Democrats are invisible here. Obama will continue to be seen as the saviour, and if he doesn’t win, our stupidity and perfidy will be proven beyond a doubt.

I can understand the anger, but I also know that we will once again be used to deflect attention from local problems. It is becoming more than tedious.

BTW, should the Left Party make it into a coaltion government, it will be a nightmare. Think Code Pink having a say in the foregn office

By: Bel Aire

Bel Aire — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:25:16 +0000

I have no special insights but I wonder if the sky is falling talk - which is normally ignored as silliness by most people - is taking root now only because the MSM has spent the last 8 years beating up on the economy. Is it hard to believe we might be at the edge of a cliff after the MSM has been beating that very drum (softly) for the last eight years? This talk would have never flown in 2001 even as the NASDAQ was racing to the bottom. In fact, you couldn’t even say the NASDAQ was falling then without being accused of talking down the economy. But eight years of ‘the rich are eating the brains of the poor for breakfast’ and ‘Bush’s economy is a disaster’ might have softened the public’s acceptance of oncoming catastrophe.

And maybe it’s not even the general public that have been ‘played’ as the general public seems to be against a bailout of any sort. Maybe it’s the pundits, even you Rick, that has lost perspective due to the constant drumbeat of the MSM. It’s at least possible, I think. The MSM is great at generating and cultivating ‘everybody knows’ memes. How many inconvenient facts have been tossed overboard to keep the economic disaster meme alive this time?

It really sucks that the MSM is capable and able to do something like this.

By: Bill Arnold

Bill Arnold — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:56:38 +0000

One problem is that Democrats don’t want to pass a Bush-approved bailout bill on their own (they’re getting the same floods of calls and letters opposing a bailout).
If they have to pass it on their own with no political cover from the Party Before Country wing of the House Republicans, they might as well add features that make it more palatable for their constituencies.
Bring some Republican support on board, and the “poison pills” will largely vanish.

The single most useful thing McCain and Obama could do would be to publicly sign in blood (metaphorically) that they support and will vote for a (specific, low-priced) bailout bill. Or alternatively that they do not support it and will vote against it.

(Obviously I believe that there is a genuine severe problem and that a bailout will problem soften the impact substantially.)

By: Postagoras

Postagoras — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:47:21 +0000

Rick, I agree with the basic premise here- the bailout stinks to high heaven, and there are no penalties involved that will prevent folks from abusing the system so that this happens again. We are at the mercy of con artists who run up enough bills that they put our economy in jeopardy. I would love to see a discussion started about that, but it always seems to run afoul of the Free Market vs. Regulatory Red Tape fake argument.

I also agree that the bailout will get larded up with goodies for both parties, more so for the party in power, the Democrats. That also makes me sick.

I disagree, though, about your point that “it doesn’t appear there are any grown ups in Washington who want to bite the bullet and do what is right for the country.” I think that there are such people, but you will never hear about them in the news. There are Representatives and Senators who do care… and there are plenty of staffers who care, and they are the ones who are really dealing with the ramifications of this bailout.

Finally, I feel that neither Presidential candidate is in a position to help with this… running for President does not translate to negotiating power in this case. Both candidates are Senators who are not on the relevant committees, and that is where the power is in this case. Also, Senators are not welcome when the House of Representatives are working something out.

Publicly “riding to the rescue” as McCain did is a stunt, I agree. But McCain’s “working the phones” behind the scenes is perfectly appropriate, and so is Obama’s “working the phones” behind the scenes. That is not the same as being MIA.