Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Funny--but it hurts.

"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."
Just spotted that over on the front page of Daily Kos. It's part of the Republican platform, adopted in September, 2008.

So... who was it that's been bailing out Wall Street and wants to do more?

Irony, anyone?

There's a fascinating dynamic here that boils down to the socialization of risk and the privatization of profit For the record, the proposed no strings, no oversight bailout proposed by the Administration is a debt of $2000 for every individual person in the USA--with no promise that it's enough, that it will work, or that there will be any benefit to the public. Just please fill this hole with your money, American taxpayers.

Of course, no one much talks about the fact that the hole that Wall Street created is--potentially--about three times the GDP of the planet. That's the size of the credit default swap market that we're asked to throw ourselves into for the good of Wall Street. What's unknown (and perhaps unknowable) is how much of that unspeakably large amount is really there and how much is fluff, vapor, hype and lies. Are we being asked to cover a hole that's only 1% of the market's size? Maybe. Or maybe not. They're not telling, they don't want to, and they don't think we can make them (hell, maybe they don't even have a clue).

But... good money after bad, anyone? Sunk costs? I think we shouldn't touch this one with the proverbial 10 foot pole. It's going to hurt--like hell--no matter what. But guaranteeing most all of Wall Street's bad judgment and greed is a complete fool's game.

2 comments:

ScottMGS said...

Worse! The Republicans in Congress don't seem to be to happy about it so either...

1) the Liberal, Tax-and-Spend, Big-Gubmint, Democrats will foist this unnecessary legislation on the hard-working people of America and their kids, grandkids, etc.

or

2) the Do-Nothing, Hand-Wringing, Don't-Care-About-the-Little-People, East-Coast, Big-City, Elitist Democrats will fail to help the hard-working people of America to retain their American-Dream homes and ruin their hopes for retirement and putting kids and grandkids through school.

Great Spirit, it's a good thing I'm not a conspiracy theorist!

(I think I wore out my hyphen key.)

ogre said...

Yeah, Scott, it's kinda fun to watch the Republicans running around, frantically being good friends to big business (cough).

I tried it out in a Costco line today when there was a screw up about which stuff was whose and someone offered to let me buy their groceries. Paulsen's name got bitter, derisive... angry laughter--from the couple, the cashier, the bagger, and someone else in ear-shot. This bailout is about as popular as Dick Cheney on a bad day.

Robin...

Hey, don't ask me to explain it. I'm just calling it like I see it. In socialism, it appears, wealth trickles up to the needy.