I would not get optimistic yet, since Our Fearless Feckless Leader is on prime time tonight, but Republican legislators are telling the Treasury secretary that trying to rush a skeletal bill through is not going to succeed, and they need time to craft something more fully fleshed out. From Bloomberg: House Republicans warned Treasury Secretary […]
Read more...One of the premises of the bailout bill is that the banking industry must have government help to get back on its feet. A banking industry expert, Bert Ely, who has a stellar track record in predicting crises and calling false alarms says that the banking industry can handle this mess internally and does not […]
Read more...Reader Lune, who has been a guest contributor on this blog and was once a Congressional aide (health care was his beat) took a gander through his HIll newspapers and was so kind as to write up what they were saying about the Paulson plan. Bottom line: whatever enthusiasm there was for it appears to […]
Read more...We received this via e-mail from reader Jonathan Bernstein. It makes a point that occurred to us in passing, and we’ve been hugely remiss in not pointing it out, namely, the near-meltdown of the financial system was averted. The urgency about passing a bailout bill is completely phony. Jonathan makes the case well: One of […]
Read more...We received this e-mail today from one of the Congressional staffers who has taken to corresponding with us (boldface ours): I know that people are often cynical about contacting their representatives. Frankly, they should be. Most days, the overwhelming volume of constituent contacts is form letter e-mails, pre-printed postcards, blast faxes, and automated phone calls. […]
Read more...Readers may recall I included an excerpt of an e-mail from a Congressional staffer in our weekend takedown of the bailout bill, which got pointed to widely, including on some political sites. This in turn has elicited more observations from insiders, this one a Congressional aide. Not only do the markets not like the bill, […]
Read more...Aha, Congress isn’t being so supine after all. Christopher Dodd, who in his initial press comments seemed to be behind the Paulson bailout plan, instead appears to be supportive of the general concept of Doing Something, as opposed to the particular embodiment served up by the Administration. Dodd is circulating a draft bill of his […]
Read more...A mere two weeks ago, the Fannie/Freddie rescue was called “the mother of all bailouts” by some commentators. If the plans of the Administration come to fruition, it will shortly be surpassed by the $700 billion mortgage rescue plan proposed by Hank Paulson late last week. The increase of the request from the initial $500 […]
Read more...For those who thought outsized pay for investment bankers and traders was a thing of the past, think again. Ditto with the idea that having been a key actor in a financial failure dims one’s employment prospects. The poster child is John Meriwether, the head of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management, whose collapse in […]
Read more...Reader eh pointed out in comments today that we could see “a monster snapback rally” should the tone of news improve, and one may be in progress. Bloomberg reports that Senator Charles Schumer proposed creating a new agency to provide equity to distressed financial firms. The stock market, and financials in particular, applauded. But in […]
Read more...I have been naive enough to have believed we live in a democracy, although the evidence contradicting that view is more obvious with every passing day. Michigan Republicans plan to challenge the eligibility of voters whose homes have been foreclosed. Talk about adding insult to injury. From Michigan Messenger (hat tip Credit Slips): The chairman […]
Read more...Sorry to be a bit heavy on Fannie and Freddie, but this is a historic event. These statements came in a five paragraph section in a New York Times article: Mr. Paulson added a mantra of his own: he privately said he didn’t want to “kick the can down the road” and leave the problems […]
Read more...Steve Waldman has a great little post on how the end of the consumer credit bubble is going to expose rifts papered over by the illusion of rising living standards for all. In fact, average real wages have been stagnant since the mid-1970s; the gains in income have accrued entirely to those at the top […]
Read more...Princeton economics professor Alan Blinder’s article in today’s New York Times provides a useful summary of a new book by a Princeton colleague, Larry Bartels, which finds consistent differences in economic performance and income inequality trends between Democratic and Republican administrations. From the New York Times: Many Americans know that there are characteristic policy differences […]
Read more...Yes, it’s the end of the summer, but the Fed boys worked over the weekend, so what’s the excuse of Hank Paulson & Co.? The saber rattling for the Fannie and Freddie rescue program to be unveiled is getting louder and louder. We had an unmistakable demand from the Chinese over the weekend, if you […]
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