Treasury will PROTECT Wall Street’s Morgan Stanley from default.

But I thought the Treasury was against PROTECTionism!

Oh, that must be only for protecting the interests of the average American citizen.

When you count the various “social security” taxes in the same pool of Federal income taxes to which you are most likely referring, the picture of the overall burden shifts considerably to the middle and the bottom half.

And from what I’ve seen, not much in the way of services is provided at all.

But that all misses the point. People are angry because bankers (and the government) have massively dislocated the economy, creating needless losses and turmoil.

And contrary to what you imply the middle to upper middle class is quite angry at what this has done to their asset investments.

Juan,

Yeahhhhh, go get them! Burn those bankers! It’s time the people who have no stake in this argument, i.e. the bottom half of earners who pay 5% of all taxes and use gov’t services like locusts, to RISE UP and punish the top 5% who pay 50% of all taxes, because that top 5% might be getting tax $$ approaching a fraction of the amount they have paid over the years to support just about everyone else.

How dare they? How dare they ask for help? That’s YOUR money, Juan! You contributed something, right? 5%! Thanks for keeping the engine of America running, pal, and thanks for showing your true colors.

Seriously. Who are the people showing up on this blog all of a sudden?

When you and I go “leveraged bottom fishing,” it’s always with the real risk of getting blown out.

But when Hank’s pals go bottom fishing, they get a free “Paulson put.”

I deplore this descent into fascism — using the word not in the common pejorative sense of “right wing” or “jackbooted” (though they apply), but rather in the functional sense of “state-directed, state-dominated economy.”

Anon 1:04 AM who “wants MS as a taxpayer” is going to find that all those “excellent” 160-IQ ambitious people will not enjoy working for the Japanese or the fedgov, and will soon drift away — leaving the taxpayers to fund the handsome salaries of the drones who stay.

The US financial sector is still grossly bloated. There were already plenty of money-center banks. Why do we need two newly-created ones called GS and MS? Toss ‘em into the street and let the people rip ‘em apart with crowbars and bare teeth. This is not gonna end till some iBankers get lynched.

– Juan Falcone

See: Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a distrust of others and a constant suspicion that people around you have sinister motives.

Hear: Radiohead – Paranoid Android (on Jools Holland, 1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_mMzOQpe0I&NR=1

If Mitsu doesn’t like existing terms, they should withdraw, US government should inject capital, and the US taxpayer will benefit as those employees drive profits in the choppy markets to come. At these prices, MS is a screaming deal and, as a taxpayer, I want it.

I don’t think it general the Feds could avoid hitting the pre-existing preferred with an intervention. Truthfully the GSEs were insolvent long-term and the Feds did them a favor. Of course, once the Feds intervene they eventually want to draw in private capital and that will require new deals, just as with Mitsubishi here.