[Lazamataz]

Die.

Us.

We're all gonna.



Carry on.

[Antoninus]

The usual suspects are crying for government intervention--which is, of course, what started this mess to begin with.

The antidote for poison is bigger doses of poison.

[dragnet2]

Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate cut this afternoon

I keep hearing from others asking who is benefiting from all these interest rate cuts...Clearly it's not the American middle class. I can only assume it's the large banks, corporations etc.

[SlapHappyPappy]

I have been saying for months that the Fed’s actions are not helping the credit crunch. You can lower rates and add liquidity to the banking system all you want, but if the banks won’t lend out the money it will never reach the economy.

I understand the need to make sure banks have ample liquidity for deposit operations, but the idea that recent Fed actions will stimulate the economy is simply wrong right now. Lowering rates only works if the reduced borrowing is because borrowers are unwilling to pay the prevailing rates. Lots of borrowers with strong financials are willing to borrow, but the lending window is just not open.

[palmer]

The size of the Federal Reserve's expected interest rate cut this afternoon may help stimulate a sluggish economy

They throw that out there, but don't say how that is supposed to happen. Obviously the small businesses that can't get loans at 5% will be even less likely to get loans at 4% or 3%. Anybody investing or loaning money for the long term with inflation in the pipe is nuts. More speculation is the only lasting result of the rate cuts. And eventually, as Mises said, complete destruction of the currency.

[underground]

If the government keeps intervening in new and increasingly aggressive ways every time the market sneezes then yes, we’re all gonna die. No economy can survive this much socialism as a permanent solution.

The only fix for the problem is capitalism, but I don’t see that option being offered at the official channels.

[Nervous Tick]

Government guaranteed asset appreciation is just insane.

[ari-freedom]

It's the money, stupid.

[peeps36]

The economy we have today is a mere shell of what it use to be. When we purchase almost any product we are not putting money in American pockets. For the past 10 years we used rising stock prices and rising home prices to fuel our economy. We also accumulated record amounts of debt during that time. What happens to a service and credit based economy when there's no more credit and no more asset appreciation?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Look at Bear Stearns. It may be no coincidence that the biggest casualty on Wall Street thus far was suffocating under a blanket of mortgage-backed securities.

And the blanket's woven material?

I'm guessing that once the mortgages were bundled and securitized the bits and pieces from that process were bundled and securitized, then the bits and pieces from that process were bundled and securitized . . . .

Whatever happened, I've heard the term "financial innovator" used to described the architects of what did happen.

Isn't that just an euphemism for con man? Didn't Michael Milken serve time for an earlier round of "financial innovation." And what about Charles Ponzi, it seems that these "financial innovators" today created a kind of nuclear fission-fusion pyramid?

And for that.. the taxpayer may have to support "government interference" (in sunnier days, hated "government interference") which will likely be needed to bail out the con men, dust 'em off, hand 'em their 100-million dollar salaries, and send 'em back into the ring to do.. what? What's next?