Posted on 07/13/2008 3:31:33 PM PDT by Sleeping Freeper
U.S. rescues Fannie, Freddie Treasury Department raises credit line, has power to buy companies' stock. Fed will open discount-lending to two government-sponsored mortgage lenders. Paulson calls for new regulatory controls.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
If we allowed unrstricted drilling for just 90 days we could probably disolve OPEC.
+1 SE Mom - Good to hear from you jeffers.
quiet a confluence of events perhaps - economic meltdown and geopolitical crisis simultaneously . . .
No shinola there, bro. What’d you pay to fill up the truck last week? What a steaming pile we’re being fed.
That is the most brilliant thing I have seen written since this whole OPEC crap started.
Thanks for posting this.
I remember a thread maybe four or five years ago titled something like ‘who’d you most like to have lunch with’ or something. I recall my choice was Walter Williams.
I honestly believe in the current political environment - and the new administration in the near future, a vast nationalization of many major arenas - including big banking. I just believe the US has set itself on a nearly unstoppable track to full-blown socialism. Both primary candidates have proven track records of being inclined that direction, and so many in this country now are already reliant on Big Daddy Gubmint. Official jump to socialism is now only a baby-step away -
Me too. I wish he would run.
actually, yes they are. That’s why prudent people put money in an FDIC-insured CD in a bank: they’re not going to get rich off of that, but they have the right to expect a modest but decent return on that investment.
They do have that right. Same with people who invest in mutual funds for the long term.
What you’re talking about is a scenario where the only people that matter are the day traders and the venture capitalists who, in your mind, are the only people who really “create wealth”. And that the rest of society should live, die, rise and fall with them since all the positive externalities they enjoy are supposed to be attributable solely to the risk-takers.
Clue for you: not only do the financial markets not, in fact, work that way (wealth is not, in fact, created solely via high-risk speculation; wealth *bubbles* are created that way), most of society simply will not live that way.
Most humans attempt to minimize risk. If you tell them that in truth, no matter what they do, they have no financial security, so they might as well hop on the high-risk investment train, they’ll tell you to go straight to h*ll. And then they’ll vote for the “stability” of socialism. And I, for one, wouldn’t blame them given those two options.
I own a small business, too.
What’s really terrifying is that the current economic policies supported by our own Pubbies are driving even small business owners into the arms of the Democrats.
If we can’t even hold onto the small business owers, we’re screwed. But right now, neither party is looking out for us.
The Pubbies want to bail out the Bigs and hose the taxpayer, and the Dims want to just nationalize everything have it over with.
It’s depressing.
I think we may see some of the Glass-Steagall Act provisions restored. And definitely some regulation of mortgage origination and collateraliztion. We may see something done to regulate hedge funds.
And we may see some interest in the global wage arbitrage that Craig Roberts has been writing about.
We definitely need an administration that stops spending so much or the dollar is going to be worth less than the paper its printed on.
>What a steaming pile we’re being fed.<
It’s got to the point where I don’t expect anything else from DC. I’d love to be a fly on the gates when they talk to St. Peter. That path leads to the DOWN DEEP Express Elevator.
Bank accounts are risky. They are put options on the value of the assets banks choose to buy. Staid mutual fund holdings are risky. They are parking areas for assets others are dumping. You are taking these risks, as are lots of others, without asking much in the way of upside. Which you are of course free to do. But if you think they are existentially safer, you simply haven't grokked yet that a contract with anyone is only worth as much as the counterparty's actual ability to pay.
"But it is insured by the FDIC". So, what are the FDIC's assets? "But it is backed up by the treasury". So are Fannie and Freddie debts, de facto, which is what you are apparently objecting to. But so what? What are the assets of the treasury? What is its word worth? What's a dollar?
The gulf cooperation council's proven oil reserves, at today's prices, are worth all the stock in the world, with enough left over as spare change to buy all the US agency paper there is.
At tomorrows, who knows. More, less. A risk.
There is no such thing as a riskless asset, because an asset is somebody else's liability. Unless you plan to eat it yourself, biologically speaking, the value of anything you can hold depends on other's demands and through that on others' net worth.
I began moving closer to the money in June of 2007 so I had a good start. It helps I educated myself as an economist for two years in the Boston VC community. I had a lot of good mentors and I give them the credit that is due. Finance is money chasing money but now I am seeing and hearing reports that innovation is needed in our economy and that mean small business will get some relief in the next couple of years. What kind of business do you run?
well, that goes without saying. I suppose a Hobbesian nightmare is a possibility, and that depending on society for *anything* is a “risk.”
And we could all die from an asteroid, too.
Within reason, however, there are risks, and then there are *risks*. Absent a total crash, people should be able to depend on safe investments like savings accounts being there for them, as long as they don’t put too much into any one institution.
consultancy. Low overhead, so I should be ok unless business totally dries up. You?
Bump!
US federal debt 9.5+ TRILLION
Add US corporate, all business and personal debt = 45 to 55 Trillion
Gold almost at a $1000 an oz.
Remember when a silver dollar cost a dollar? Know what one costs now?
Lots of oil but we cannot drill for it. We cannot even use modern technology to find out how much there is offshore and in Alaska. Not allowed.
There is a lot we are not allowed to do in this country of “We the people.”
Huge bloated useless government that is willing to increase our debt, let oil prices to continue to climb, regulate us to death and is increasing it’s tentacles reach in removing our freedoms, in particular freedom of speech.
Always finding new ways to tax, and create new fees, permits, licenses etc, so they can spend more and more on programs and causes that are nothing more than wealth redistribution and vote buying.
Hey, “have a good day!”
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