Comments on: How Will Washington Finesse a Bailout? http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:58:00 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Francois http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html#comment-5152 Francois Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:11:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-a-bailout/#comment-5152 "If things deteriorate sufficiently in the next two to three months, it's possible we'll get a hail Mary pass of a radical reform package too close to elections to get passed, just so the Republicans can blame the Democrats."<br/><br/>Isn't this the most surefire indicator that this crisis will be as bad as Roubini and colleagues predict it?<br/><br/><br/>We could be deep enough in the proverbial doodoo to choke to death, and these clowns in DC keep on playing games.<br/><br/>In times like this, a get-real leadership is critical. We are very far from that, since politics STILL drives behavior despite the potential dire consequences of this credit morass. “If things deteriorate sufficiently in the next two to three months, it’s possible we’ll get a hail Mary pass of a radical reform package too close to elections to get passed, just so the Republicans can blame the Democrats.”

Isn’t this the most surefire indicator that this crisis will be as bad as Roubini and colleagues predict it?

We could be deep enough in the proverbial doodoo to choke to death, and these clowns in DC keep on playing games.

In times like this, a get-real leadership is critical. We are very far from that, since politics STILL drives behavior despite the potential dire consequences of this credit morass.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html#comment-5145 Anonymous Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:16:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-a-bailout/#comment-5145 "So will the US government step in instead? Not in a classic sense anytime soon, I suspect..."<br/><br/>*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*<br/><br/>hahaha! Only a few hours later...<br/><br/>NYTimes headline: "JPMorgan and Fed Move to Bail Out Bear Stearns"<br/><br/>...someone didn't get the message that this is not a "bail out"!<br/><br/>InquiringMind “So will the US government step in instead? Not in a classic sense anytime soon, I suspect…”

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

hahaha! Only a few hours later…

NYTimes headline: “JPMorgan and Fed Move to Bail Out Bear Stearns”

…someone didn’t get the message that this is not a “bail out”!

InquiringMind

]]> By: dd http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html#comment-5141 dd Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:39:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-a-bailout/#comment-5141 US Faces Severe Recession, Feldstein Says<br/><br/>"The United States has entered a recession that could be "substantially more severe" than recent ones, former National Bureau of Economic Research President Martin Feldstein said<br/>Friday.<br/>"The situation is very bad, the situation is getting worse, and the risks are that it could get very bad," Feldstein said in a speech at the Futures Industry Association meeting in Boca Raton, Florida."<br/>http://www.cnbc.com/id/23629967<br/><br/><br/>NBER is a private sector group that is considered the arbiter of U.S. business cycles. US Faces Severe Recession, Feldstein Says

“The United States has entered a recession that could be “substantially more severe” than recent ones, former National Bureau of Economic Research President Martin Feldstein said
Friday.
“The situation is very bad, the situation is getting worse, and the risks are that it could get very bad,” Feldstein said in a speech at the Futures Industry Association meeting in Boca Raton, Florida.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23629967

NBER is a private sector group that is considered the arbiter of U.S. business cycles.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html#comment-5134 Anonymous Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-a-bailout/#comment-5134 Yves, <br/><br/>There are plenty of small-to-medium sized banks throughout the US who have zero exposure to bad loans, and could easily take over the role of Citi, BoA, and the like.<br/><br/>When a bank is folded, why do they give it a choice of who to merge into? The delicate sensibilities of the incompetent execs?<br/><br/>The solution is simple. When you nationalize a failed bank, make it very clear that their risk tolerances were not just "poor" but rather grossly incompetent and utterly contemptible. Bring in the exec team from the bank system who bothered to care about the quality of their loans. Ensure that system's Tanta-esque character has the needed pull.<br/><br/>This wouldn't be hard if people were actually willing to recognize the severity of the situation. Yves,

There are plenty of small-to-medium sized banks throughout the US who have zero exposure to bad loans, and could easily take over the role of Citi, BoA, and the like.

When a bank is folded, why do they give it a choice of who to merge into? The delicate sensibilities of the incompetent execs?

The solution is simple. When you nationalize a failed bank, make it very clear that their risk tolerances were not just “poor” but rather grossly incompetent and utterly contemptible. Bring in the exec team from the bank system who bothered to care about the quality of their loans. Ensure that system’s Tanta-esque character has the needed pull.

This wouldn’t be hard if people were actually willing to recognize the severity of the situation.

]]> By: vincent http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-bailout.html#comment-5129 vincent Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:37:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/03/how-will-washington-finesse-a-bailout/#comment-5129 "I suspect we will see more desperate measures from the Fed, more "free market" non solutions from the Treasury, and increasing difficulty in resorting to covert financial rescues, given the heightened scrutiny of everything mortgage and housing related."<br/><br/>Please not say that "free market" is when governement is doing a bailout of big companies with the money of the taxpayer or by inflating the money supply, which create the inflation tax against common people. <br/>That's the absolute opposite. Call that "corporate welfare" "state capitalism" if you want, but not "free market". “I suspect we will see more desperate measures from the Fed, more “free market” non solutions from the Treasury, and increasing difficulty in resorting to covert financial rescues, given the heightened scrutiny of everything mortgage and housing related.”

Please not say that “free market” is when governement is doing a bailout of big companies with the money of the taxpayer or by inflating the money supply, which create the inflation tax against common people.
That’s the absolute opposite. Call that “corporate welfare” “state capitalism” if you want, but not “free market”.

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