naked capitalism

Matthew Dubuque says:

Matthew Dubuque

Good post and encouraging too.

But I’m perplexed at the surprise expressed that Barney Frank is Paulson’s “lapdog”.

He’s been a key part of the problem for years.

Matthew Dubuque

JO says:

Hi all, the government plan will effectively buy garbage debt at purposely inflated prices.
Two comments today. Talk about a vision which was right on the money:
1) I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominent men.
Woodrow Wilson, after signing the Fed Reserve Act in 1913

2) If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
Thomas Jefferson

All American taxpayers must voice their opinion to Congress and band together to stop this monumental fraud being perpetrated by these animals. Despite loosing most battles which will leave us battered, broke, and feeling beaten, the people will win the war in the end.
JO

Anonymous says:

anon at 6:24
Frank is from Mass.
Anyway since about noon there was in circulation a draft bill by Sen. Dodd which was heavy on support for mortagees demanding stakes in firms for bail-out money and trimming Exec pay.
Sen Schumer has said much the same thing immediately after Paulson presented his plan and so has to a lesser extent Sen. Clinton. (I doubt anyone in the Senate cares much about Lieberman’s viewpoint.)
All of this is public knowledge and
readily available

Anonymous says:

At this point in the evening, I can’t even remember how many ways I contacted my senators and reps today – fax, email, blah blah blah.

Tomorrow? Filibuster…

Wait? Worried? You should be…

*I* can barter, can you?

Anonymous says:

“She says offices are being flooded with calls, so members know how unpopular this package is. The Club for Growth has come out against it, but most of the calls (at least to her office) against the bailout are coming from the left.”

Interesting assessment about where the calls are coming from because I heard Michael Savage on the radio tonight and he is livid. Rabid foam spitting livid. Said this is the United States of Goldman Sachs and we need to tear up the Constitution, Bill of Rights and National Anthem. Yeah, you read it right.

Anyway, Mr. Savage is hardly the image of a flaming liberal and I, for one, appreciate the help of his audience, regardless of the ideological drivers.

Anonymous says:

I work in the securities industry but for the next four weeks am on my couch between jobs. I’ve spent the last two days emailing and calling my own and others congresspeople. And I’ll tell you… I’ve never felt better!

As a “man on the street” observation, I spent all day yesterday leaving voicemails. When I went at it again this morning, all the mailboxes were full. Call me crazy, but I can’t imagine they were getting many calls from voters telling them how much they LOVED the proposal. I have this sneaking suspicion that congress is getting absolutely BOMBARDED by calls from furious voters. One can hope…

The alliance here is a weird one… the first time I can recall the far left and the far right teaming up against the supposed “middle”.

I’m pretty conservative, but having spent the weekend reading the positions of my newfound allies, I stumbled across something I thought was amazingly noteworthy. In 2001, people who were accepted at the time as “experts” were paraded in front of Congress in an effort to scare them into voting for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act. For the last seven years, the Democratic Party has been complaining (loudly) that they feel they were hoodwinked. And now, with this issue and these experts they’re falling for the EXACT SAME THING!!

Anyways, write and call your rep and senators. Its the first time I’ve done it and I haven’t felt better in years.

Anonymous says:

$700 Billion Dollar Bailout Good For Economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the largest government bailout in U.S. history and two days after it was introduced to the Americans paying for it, the proposal is still largely a mystery.

Among the unanswered questions: How will the government mop up the bad mortgage debt on banks’ books, who will run the process and how much will it cost?

ADVERTISEMENT
Key elements of the plan remain in flux as behind closed doors Democrats demand modifications that would provide more help for ordinary Americans in return for bailing out the country’s financial giants.

Conservative Green says:

I don’t know what the sunshine-patriot talk-show flagwavers are saying, but over at the
American Conservative Magazine’s blog, you can see they aren’t happy either. I’m more of a Green, but I agree with the AmConMag people surprisingly often. They don’t pull any punches, and quite often get it right.

Some of the language used brings to mind another incidence of grandstanding hysterics, that precipitating the Iraq war. This crisis is real, of course, and the content of this tragedy less fictional, but the form is the same: a sudden threat is identified, extraordinary actions and powers are deemed necessary post haste. Drastic measures will be accomplished through the mixture of cowardice and corruption that is sometimes called bipartisanship, new powers will be concentrated in sectors of the government; they will likely be difficult to unwind, if not permanent. Questioning the consensus is all but forbidden. Now, as then, the details are too grim for the tender public: Senators Dodd, Schumer, et al, would not disclose them Friday. Back then it was classified information that couldn’t be freely circulated; I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you. Now it’s I could tell you but it’d probably kill you.

You’ll recall the ”crisis” precipitating the war also featured administration appointees briefing Congressional leaders and leaving no dry seat in the house. It makes me wonder what sort of prop Paulson might have used, a la Powell brandishing his vial of mock anthrax at the UN. Perhaps a toilet brush, to terrify them with the prospect of poverty and its indignities. As with the war, consequences for the powerful and responsible few will be deferred indefinitely, but will be immediate for the nation’s integrity, prestige and pocketbook. The war may have not been necessary (though this question, and its moral implications, have been flushed down a memory hole capped with the illusion of “success”–as if we’ve gone through it all to deliver Iraq and its oil wealth to an Iran-allied Shi’ite government) but even so it can be seen as a consequence of an extravagant society overly dependent on oil–just as the collapse of our financial system is a consequence of our dependence on borrowed money.

alan von altendorf says:

=== FLASH ===
A proposal that actually makes sense, article by Roger Ehrenburg posted at Seeking Alpha today:

“Buying assets at anything other than fair market value is against every principle we should be enforcing. Transparency. Accuracy. Full disclosure. This is a non-starter. Who cares where the assets are carried on a firm’s books? If Morgan Stanley (MS) has them at $.30, Merrill (MER) at $.32 and Goldman (GS) at $.50, this is not the point and should play no part in the analysis. There should be a reverse auction to determine price, with the Treasury buying the cheapest and moving up the line. Depending on where firms are carrying these assets, it might require a write-down that would threaten its solvency. If not, great. The firm has liquefied the assets and the U.S. taxpayer gets the upside over time (monetizing the liquidity option, in my parlance).

However, if there is a capital gap I’d suggest that the Treasury gets issued convertible preferred stock on attractive terms, supporting the firm in its operations while substantially diluting common equity holders. In this case jobs are saved, the institution continues to operate as a smaller, leaner, hopefully more prudent firm while the U.S. taxpayer, once again, owns the liquidity option.

“As time goes by, the markets stabilize and the convertible preferred moves in the money, the U.S. Treasury can “privatize” its holding thorugh a public offering or a private sale, recouping funds that bridged the firm to health and hopefully making a profit for the U.S. taxpayer in the process. This would be a win/win. The only losers here are the common stockholders of troubled institutions. And this is as it should be. Losers shouldn’t become winners overnight because of Government largesse, and hopefully our policy-makers know that we’re watching. As is the rest of the world.”

http://seekingalpha.com/article/96605-robin-hood-in-reverse-in-defense-of-the-u-s-taxpayer?source=front_page_editors_picks

Anonymous says:

“Lapdog” is unfair to Barney Frank.”

This needs to be said. All politicians are whores. They may have very nice personalities, some of them may even believe what they say, but they are whores, plain and simple.

The entire lobbying crew are their pimps, and the industry and special interest groups their tricks.

The sad part is that, brought to my attention by the spitzer mess, good whores are expensive. You can get a congressman for much less than what she cost.

Look at the numbers, its so very, very true.

I’d rather get the happy ending.

tom a taxpayer says:

Here are two “must-have” additions to the Paulson/Pelosi bailout plan.
Add to Sec. 2(b) Necessary Actions:
Department of Justice shall conduct a fast-track Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) investigation of Fannie and Freddie, mortgage lenders, appraisal companies, commercial banks, Wall Street investment banks and brokerages, rating agencies, Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and SEC…,… the entire gang that raped and pillaged the mortgage industry, ruined the housing market, destroyed the credit system, endangered municipal financing, pension funds, and the banking system, sent the economy into a downward spiral, endangered the world financial system, and required the extreme rescue measures in this law.

Add Sec 3 (3) Considerations:
-punishing lawbreakers and restoring law and order in financial markets.

Anonymous says:

Quick email generator to write to all your Reps and Senators with a nice, short protest template:

http://www.votenobailout.org/

Richard Kline says:

Anti-Paulson Proposal slogan: “Too much is more than enough.” Or, “Do not pass Go; do not collect a trillion,” has social context behind it, and aura of anti-monopoly.

eh says:

This is exactly what taxpayers have to worry about: that this total abomination will be negotiated down to what the media will portray as something less than a total abomination, at which point it will receive wide kudos and win passage and be signed into law. All of this when the basic reality has not changed one bit.

Boat 52 says:

I wanted to send Barney Frank an e-mail and I am not from his district. His website would not accept it. Given his leadership role, I feel it is an outrage that he precludes receiving comments from taxpayers.

If he wants to be restrictive in who e-mails his office, then he should resign from all his leadership roles and become a rank and file Congress person.

Shame on Barney Frank.

Anonymous says:

Anon 7.24: Hilarious! You actually made me laugh out loud, which, during a week in which the US democracy is actually transformed into something resembling Nigeria, is quite a feat. Thanks for the chuckle ….

Anonymous says:

September 23, 2008

Hot off the press 11:20 AM PDS:

Bloomberg:
“Bernanke, putting aside his prepared remarks released earlier today, said the Treasury should buy illiquid assets at “hold-to-maturity'' values rather than at discounted “fire- sale'' prices. The suspension of “mark-to-market'' accounting for assets, a change backed by “many banks,'' would instead hurt investor confidence.”
Can you believe?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSnNhb40SaxE&refer=home

Earl