Who are, of course, extremely willing to be p0wned.
Check out this video from Harvard, Kenneth Roggoff Greg Mankiw (!), whose views are summarized by Credit Slips here:
The liquidity crisis isn't real. Or, to restate it: Any liquidity crisis is caused by the promise of a government bailout. Greg said that his many friends in investment banking said that there is plenty of money to invest in financial services, but right now it is "sitting on the sidelines." Why? Because the financial services industry does not want to pay the terms required to get that money back in circulation (e.g., give up equity). As he put it, why do business with Warren Buffett who will negotiate a tough deal, if you believe that the government will ride in soon with cheaper cash?
Translation: Hank Paulson and His Merry Banksters knew they could roll the Beltway Dems, who've already shown they'll fuck over their base in a heartbeat, if the price is right.
Ken also talked about the need to shrink the financial services sector. He thinks it is good that the investment banking houses are failing and many people on Wall Street are losing their jobs because, in his view, we have an oversupply in that sector and our economy just can't support it.
Ken's background with the IMF and on the Board of the Federal Reserve add a certain credibility to his assessment of conditions on Wall Street. If he is right, the $700 bailout is saving some investment bankers' jobs in the short term, but overall it is just making the financial system worse.
Well, what does he mean, "worse"? It's certainly better for the bankers!
NOTE Hat tip Amberglow.
NOTE Yes, I know there are individual good Democrats. They aren't "Beltway Dems"!
UPDATE Elizabeth Warren's talk is great, too. See this article and her lecture here on "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class."
UPDATE Krugman calls his shot:
But I have a prediction: well before January 20, Congress will be asked to vote on bailout 2.0.
That's because the plan is not a bail out, but a bust out. the squeeze will continue until the lemon is dry.
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Warren rocks---and that site too
(But it assumes more financial knowledge than i have)
whoa...No one says it better than Anglachel
It's the Democrats' Shitpile Now
And Krugman isn't exactly irrationally exuberant
Edge of the Abyss
On second thought...
you know, after reading Anglachel and the Krugster, I think Obama and the Democrats are going to prove that karma is a giant fucking bitch. Have fun guys.
Ever compare what Bush looked like in 2000 to now? Nasty.Obama better keep doing them crunches. I'm sure he'll make the time. For Michelle, too. You know, it's not fair. The first black President evah and he's getting handed the worst economy since the Great Depression and a giant financial crisis. Frankly, if they were smart they would have stuck it to the woman. But then again, she probably would have led us out of this mess. Instead they hand to somebody whose never really held a job. Again. Wow.
Teh sucks.
Sirota: "capitalism murdered democracy"
-- "... if there's been any lesson the last few years, it is that authoritarian capitalism - rather than democratic capitalism - may be the dominant ideology of the 21st century. ...
it's structure is pure authoritarian capitalism. Whether you think handing over $700 billion to speculators will help our economy or not (and many economists believe it will hurt it), it is undeniable that this bill vests authoritarian power in the hands of the Treasury Secretary - and that is a radical departure from the fundamental tenets of our democracy.
What has differentiated America from other countries is our reliance on institutions rather than individuals. ..." -- http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008...
"presidentialism"/"czarism"
also from there--
"... We have become a country that has one national religion: presidentialism. That's the religion that says the president is an all-powerful deity - and the Oval Office is a position that is the only one that matters. That this outlook is fundamentally undemocratic and offensive to the principles of our Founding Fathers seems completely forgotten. We have embraced czarism with the zeal of cult worshipers - and now this zeal has global economic forces at its back.
We are trying to economically compete with anti-democratic forces that can make financial decisions without any public input at all. As we saw with the debate over the bailout bill, the transnational corporate elite tell us our democracy and its careful deliberations are hurting our ability to make quick decisions in this global market - and therefore that democracy must be subverted to the will of capitalism. Thus, a bill is rushed through Congress in a week that hands 5 percent of our entire economy to one man, Hank Paulson. ..."