and using it to guide my continued reading on the topic.
Hearing the mainstream press chide the citizens of main street for our alleged profligacy already annoys me. After reading what was just posted here, those moments of sanctimonious ignorance from the chattering classes are going to bother me even more.
and the absurdity that only the "low skilled" jobs would be offshore outsourced is really almost racist. What makes anyone believe that in other nations, magically the people cannot handle top level jobs?
It's probably a great economic stimulus for Chinese made Zap cars, if done right and the voucher can only be spent on an automobile that gets better gas mileage. $4500 will buy you a perfectly reasonable Zap NEV for the wife to take kids to school and go shopping in (no freeway or rural travel though).
Where they told me 8 years ago that we were only exporting the "easy" jobs and nobody would ever export the R&D jobs for fear of intellectual property poaching, is exposed as the lie it was.
Surely, then, Bank Of America can afford to refund customers some of the rapacious and exortionary fees they charge... like when your debit card overdraws by $1 and they charge you $39?
Oh wait, i forgot - only the super rich benefit from this. They can assault customers and rake them over the coals all the time, but if something bad happens to them, the government goes into debt to give them hundreds of millions of dollars.
that wouldn't have cost anywhere near this amount. I believe I read the U.S. could buy outright every distressed mortgage in the United States and pay only $200 Billion.
thanks for the quotes, at least I'm not alone because I am really outraged, probably even more outraged because we know Bush is full of it but to get "more of the same" when I know the entire nation believed they were getting something else...
is frustrating. I wonder if team Obama is going to suffer the worse backlash in hell if they continue down the legislative and policy path they seem to be heading.
First, there must be a credible programme for what Americans call “deleveraging”. The US cannot afford years of painful debt reduction in the private sector – a process that has still barely begun. The alternative is forced writedowns of bad assets in the financial sector and either more fiscal recapitalisation or debt-for-equity swaps. It also means the mass bankruptcy of insolvent households and forced writedowns of mortgages.
All this would also lead to big one-off increases in public debt. But those increases would probably be much smaller than those generated by a decade of huge fiscal deficits. The aim is to have a slimmer and better-capitalised financial system and a healthier non-financial private-sector balance sheet, sooner rather than later. The troubled asset relief programme should be used for these purposes. It will need to be bigger.
Second and most important, the structural current account deficit has to diminish. The US private sector is no longer in a position to run huge financial deficits as an offset to the demand-draining external deficits. The public sector can do so only for a few years. In the long run, the world economy must be sustainably and healthily rebalanced. This is a huge challenge for international economic diplomacy. It is also an essential element of sound domestic policy. . . .
Smith really sums it up well:
The US has not been willing to inflict pain on lenders and investors, even though over-their-heads borrowers will go bust and deliver losses. But too many holders of the paper seem to derive false comfort from having the losses show up a tad later than they would anyhow.
With Bernanke talking again about having the Fed sponge up toxic waste, and needing a Federal fund to do that, and Obama issuing his first veto threat over the next round of TARP money, it seems likely that we are going to do things wrong one more time.
but there needs to be financing component to it, and the government needs to make sure that there are new vehicles available at an affordable price.
I would like to see the government guarantee the purchase of a number of new vehicles, and then sell them at a discount to the people who turn in older vehicles for scrap.
These aren't going to be hybrids, they are going to be smaller vehicles like the new Chevy Cruze.
it's an absurd amount of money and basically not needed. The fundamental concept is flawed here. And vague promises are not reassuring at all. He has Paulson's Neel Kashkari in place to manage the TARP, same guy.
I am thoroughly disgusted. "limiting CEO pay"???? Come on, that isn't even 1/10th of what is wrong with this. The real bottom line is one doesn't need $750 Billion of US taxpayer money to fix this problem. It's not even the right approach. Only when they stop the foreclosures will things stabilize and this is the #1 thing both parties are playing platitudes but not really doing anything about. They refuse to give money to the people, that's bottom up, or Keynesian economics and they are giving it to the very corporations, groups, systems which are broken instead.
It's an incredible amount of money. I remember when people were writing books, Americans were shocked at the cost of Iraq, esp. then at $1 trillion dollars and now they are dropping trillions like it is a paper confetti.
I did an overview of the latest CBO report and it's quite possible the United States plain goes bankrupt. So to hand over another $350 billion which is not proved at all to help or even be needed is absurd.
Restoring the economy requires that we maintain the flow of credit to families and businesses. So I'm gratified that a majority of the U.S. Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, voted today to give me the authority to implement the rest of the financial rescue plan in a new and responsible way. I know this wasn't an easy vote because of the frustration so many of us share about how the first half of this plan was implemented. There was too little transparency and accountability, and it didn't do enough to get credit where it's needed most -- small businesses and families struggling to keep their jobs and make ends meet. Now my pledge is to change the way this plan is implemented and keep faith with the American tax payer by placing strict conditions on CEO pay and providing more loans to small businesses, more transparency so that taxpayers can see where their money is spent, and more sensible regulations that will protect consumers, investors, and businesses," said President-elect Obama.
"....under Capitalism, man oppresses man. Under Communism it's just the opposite..." ---John Kenneth Galbraith
....the one thing I think we can hope for is that (and quoting what I heard from others) "Obama will do it better". For better or for worse it's all on him now. He promises that he will have accountibility, etc. (it remains to be seen, of course), so I guess we'll see.
"....under Capitalism, man oppresses man. Under Communism it's just the opposite..." ---John Kenneth Galbraith
I find this suspicious since the $350 Billion TARP money is meeting resistance in Congress, so magically we get these sorts of "reports".
As noted in the bail out Senate fight, Larry Summers is claiming $50 - $100 billion of the additional $350 billion will go to "helping homeowners" but it is couched in that there is no specifics to set up a program to directly help the homeowner.
That is why I am putting together graphs, based on Milton Friedman's "Monetary History of the US" that has monthly M1 and M2 all the way back through WW1. When those are complete, I will post them.
As I have said before, what we are experiencing right now is a huge real-world experiment by the Fed to see if Milton Friedman's theory of the Great Depression was correct or not. Your criticism may be spot on.
but we know CPI and commodities were inflating all during WW2, so clearly so was PPI for finished goods.
We do have commodity PPI from 1913, and Friedman has "wholesale prices" in his "Monetary History". I can't speak for the latter (yet), but the former were also inflating during WW2.
So, clearly this is the biggest decline since the 1930s.
But the money supply is directly influenced by the Fed, isn't it? Bernanke's philosophy is that the Great Depression was exacerbated by tightening of the money supply, so he's done everything he can to flood the money markets.
So it seems to me that you're not looking at the *natural* signs of an economic recovery, but rather, a snapshot of the Fed's efforts to spur one on.
It doesn't address the fundamental problems of widespread bank insolvency or middle class turmoil (fewer jobs, foreclosed homes, spiraling healthcare costs). You can pour all the gasoline you want into the carburetor, it won't improve engine performance if the spark plugs aren't firing.
and using it to guide my continued reading on the topic.
Hearing the mainstream press chide the citizens of main street for our alleged profligacy already annoys me. After reading what was just posted here, those moments of sanctimonious ignorance from the chattering classes are going to bother me even more.
and the absurdity that only the "low skilled" jobs would be offshore outsourced is really almost racist. What makes anyone believe that in other nations, magically the people cannot handle top level jobs?
It's probably a great economic stimulus for Chinese made Zap cars, if done right and the voucher can only be spent on an automobile that gets better gas mileage. $4500 will buy you a perfectly reasonable Zap NEV for the wife to take kids to school and go shopping in (no freeway or rural travel though).
Where they told me 8 years ago that we were only exporting the "easy" jobs and nobody would ever export the R&D jobs for fear of intellectual property poaching, is exposed as the lie it was.
Surely, then, Bank Of America can afford to refund customers some of the rapacious and exortionary fees they charge... like when your debit card overdraws by $1 and they charge you $39?
Oh wait, i forgot - only the super rich benefit from this. They can assault customers and rake them over the coals all the time, but if something bad happens to them, the government goes into debt to give them hundreds of millions of dollars.
that wouldn't have cost anywhere near this amount. I believe I read the U.S. could buy outright every distressed mortgage in the United States and pay only $200 Billion.
thanks for the quotes, at least I'm not alone because I am really outraged, probably even more outraged because we know Bush is full of it but to get "more of the same" when I know the entire nation believed they were getting something else...
is frustrating. I wonder if team Obama is going to suffer the worse backlash in hell if they continue down the legislative and policy path they seem to be heading.
Completely demolishes Obama's plan. Wolf Versus Pettis on US Stimulus, Fiscal Deficit (Not for the Fainthearted)
Smith really sums it up well:
And Stirling Newberry sums it up this way:
but there needs to be financing component to it, and the government needs to make sure that there are new vehicles available at an affordable price.
I would like to see the government guarantee the purchase of a number of new vehicles, and then sell them at a discount to the people who turn in older vehicles for scrap.
These aren't going to be hybrids, they are going to be smaller vehicles like the new Chevy Cruze.
it's an absurd amount of money and basically not needed. The fundamental concept is flawed here. And vague promises are not reassuring at all. He has Paulson's Neel Kashkari in place to manage the TARP, same guy.
I am thoroughly disgusted. "limiting CEO pay"???? Come on, that isn't even 1/10th of what is wrong with this. The real bottom line is one doesn't need $750 Billion of US taxpayer money to fix this problem. It's not even the right approach. Only when they stop the foreclosures will things stabilize and this is the #1 thing both parties are playing platitudes but not really doing anything about. They refuse to give money to the people, that's bottom up, or Keynesian economics and they are giving it to the very corporations, groups, systems which are broken instead.
It's an incredible amount of money. I remember when people were writing books, Americans were shocked at the cost of Iraq, esp. then at $1 trillion dollars and now they are dropping trillions like it is a paper confetti.
I did an overview of the latest CBO report and it's quite possible the United States plain goes bankrupt. So to hand over another $350 billion which is not proved at all to help or even be needed is absurd.
"....under Capitalism, man oppresses man. Under Communism it's just the opposite..." ---John Kenneth Galbraith
....the one thing I think we can hope for is that (and quoting what I heard from others) "Obama will do it better". For better or for worse it's all on him now. He promises that he will have accountibility, etc. (it remains to be seen, of course), so I guess we'll see.
"....under Capitalism, man oppresses man. Under Communism it's just the opposite..." ---John Kenneth Galbraith
Now they are predicting more bank failures for 2009.
I find this suspicious since the $350 Billion TARP money is meeting resistance in Congress, so magically we get these sorts of "reports".
As noted in the bail out Senate fight, Larry Summers is claiming $50 - $100 billion of the additional $350 billion will go to "helping homeowners" but it is couched in that there is no specifics to set up a program to directly help the homeowner.
It's going to be a blockbuster. I don't think I've seen that done!
much larger (CPI declined 25%, PPI probably declined even more sharply).
Hopefully I can give you an "official" answer within the week if not sooner.
That is why I am putting together graphs, based on Milton Friedman's "Monetary History of the US" that has monthly M1 and M2 all the way back through WW1. When those are complete, I will post them.
As I have said before, what we are experiencing right now is a huge real-world experiment by the Fed to see if Milton Friedman's theory of the Great Depression was correct or not. Your criticism may be spot on.
does it equal or exceed the decline in the 1930's.
but we know CPI and commodities were inflating all during WW2, so clearly so was PPI for finished goods.
We do have commodity PPI from 1913, and Friedman has "wholesale prices" in his "Monetary History". I can't speak for the latter (yet), but the former were also inflating during WW2.
So, clearly this is the biggest decline since the 1930s.
Who else is running over to the junk yard and quickly buying anything that runs and gets bad gas mileage to get the $4500 bucks?
Those yards where the decorations are rusting cars/trucks up on blocks are going to have all of their lawn ornaments stolen with this kind of deal.
collapse of the Great Depression? Did they keep those numbers back then?
This is astounding.
But the money supply is directly influenced by the Fed, isn't it? Bernanke's philosophy is that the Great Depression was exacerbated by tightening of the money supply, so he's done everything he can to flood the money markets.
So it seems to me that you're not looking at the *natural* signs of an economic recovery, but rather, a snapshot of the Fed's efforts to spur one on.
It doesn't address the fundamental problems of widespread bank insolvency or middle class turmoil (fewer jobs, foreclosed homes, spiraling healthcare costs). You can pour all the gasoline you want into the carburetor, it won't improve engine performance if the spark plugs aren't firing.
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