Eventually throwing money at the rich to make an economy look good; permitting off sheet entities and other free form spread sheet games; now the government is offering free money to more and more comers. A discount window once open to investment banks will now be open to insurance companies? This is socialism as we should expect from extremist politician who always work for themselves – not in the interests of America.
By Monday morning, you should know Merrill Lynch is gone - a victim of a liquidity crisis. Lehman Bros is in such bad shape that no one is willing to buy them. And AIG - the biggest insurance company - has just gone begging to the Fed for money because, well, it has been obvious for at least five years that their accounting sucked.
Meanwhile, the FDIC (who insure your back accounts) has also quietly discusses a government cash extension. Legg Mason has been added to a list of companies maybe on the verge. Auto loan companies are rumored to now be suffering from non-performing car loans. And of course another anti-American company (who has obviously been playing spread sheet games for decades while stifling innovation) GM keeps suggesting it will beg for government money.
As Cheney said, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". It has been noted many times here. These ponzi schemes that made the economy look good eventually cause economic forces to take revenge. The fiscal mismanagement of four and seven years ago is now resulting in an appropriate response.
Why is the economy not in free fall? It would have been if this was 1920 economics. But we have numerous safety nets. Many if not most are now in operation. For example, something over 700 American banks have failed. It is no loner certain how many mortgages are non-performing. Something like one in three in California may be on the verge of default.
More obviously encouraged were money games by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They too have been legally buying politicians to get a slice of the free money
Last edited by tw; 09-14-2008 at 09:10 PM.
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