Surrounded by Insanity
Posted on October 4, 2008
Filed Under Congress, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Palin, Politics |
I always try to check myself when I’m thinking everyone around me is insane. Maybe I’m the insane one?
But…damn. There are the every day inconsequentials wherein, for instance, a friend - gay and pathologically liberal - tells me with a straight face and passionate conviction that he’s sure Sarah Palin wore her hair down in the debate - She never has it down! Never! - in order to hide an earpiece. Apparently that’s the answer as to why she so thoroughly scrubbed the Biden clock.
Much more importantly: $83 billion for AIG. $200 billion for Fannie and Freddie. $25 billion for the auto industry. Now, $850 billion in bank bailouts and assorted pork to - what? Save the capitalist economy with socialist fixes? Are people vacuous enough to believe the taxpayer may make money by selling the crap securities we’re now obliged to buy when we go to resell them? Does it occur to anyone that if there was money to be made investors would already be buying them?
And the alleged pros and experts - those who, not incidentally, stand to gain most from this deal - are telling us variations of what NAR’s Richard Gaylord said in an email this morning: “We know it’s not perfect, but…” What the hell? If it’s not perfect, don’t do it!
And what, exactly, did the markets this was supposed to temper think of the deal? After having been up nearly three hundred points for most of the day, after the signing the investors sold. Down over 150.
This isn’t a fix for anyone but those who got us into this mess: Barney Frank. Chris Dodd. Franklin Raines. And we’re footing the bill.
Is that all? Of course not. Precedent set, we already have Arnold, hat in hand, asking for a measly $7 billion. How many to follow?
Absolutely insane.
UPDATE, Monday morning: The US markets have been open an hour. Asia and Europe have tanked overnight. Dow has now broken through the 10,000 barrier for the first time in four years, down well over 400 points. I suspect we need another government fix!
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3 Responses to “Surrounded by Insanity”
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Jeff, you seemed to have left out a few names on your list to blame for this. How about the guy who asked for this bill, President Bush? Or maybe the head of the SEC Chris Cox? and don’t forget Treasury Sec Paulson, The guy who used to be the head of Goldman Sachs!
Are people vacuous enough to believe the taxpayer may make money by selling the crap securities we’re now obliged to buy when we go to resell them?
Not sure why, but this strikes me as ironic that you said that.
>Jeff, you seemed to have left out a few names on your list to blame for this. How about the guy who asked for this bill, President Bush?
This is exactly my frustration. Even some conservative Republicans have jumped into the hysteria using the “It’s not perfect, but…” and Chicken Little “The markets are falling! The markets are falling” lines in order to sell it.
There’s also no question Bush at times bought into the gooey “everyone deserves to own a home!” mantra; there’s also no question he, McCain and Republicans pushed in 2005 to get more stringent regulation on Fannie and Freddie in the wake of the Raines book-cooking debacle.
And there’s no question Frank and the democrats blocked them.