Category Archives: Econ & Money

Miami: Say NO to the Bush Bailout Rally
September 25, 2008
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Stand with your neighbors and say NO Bush Bailout!

Bring signs and friends so that we can all call on the government to invest in Main Street, not Wall Street.

Address
Busy Street Corner
SW 17th Avenue and US1
Miami, FL 33133

I wonder why so often progressive rallies pick this corner? Yes, it's on a main commuter route, but it's soulless and not that accessible.

Update: find a rally near you

I am very disappointed to read this in the NYT online.

At the same time, Congressional Democrats said they were prepared to drop one of their most contentious demands: new authority for bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of first mortgages. That provision, aimed at preventing foreclosures, was heavily opposed by Senate Republicans.

I hope it is not true. I have yet to read a convincing case for why banks should get all the windfalls for their evident stupidities. I do not like being asked to pay large sums of money for windfalls to the improvident, but given the choice between improvident families losing their homes and stock and bondholders in improvident banks, I know whose windfall I'd choose to hand my a share of my income to.

On a somewhat more cheerful note, it seems that the Dems might “only” hand over $150 billion, which might leave a little money for social programs in the Obama administration. Even though the $700 bn number was clearly made up, I suppose this will be about as small a number as they can get away with. Think what it could have done for health care.

If the Congress doesn't hold some sort of line on the amount, the GOP program of “starving the beast” — making the Treasury so broke that there's no danger Democrats could afford anything popular — would truly have reached its apotheosis.

I hab a bad cold so instead of trying to say anything I will refer you to dday at Digby's place.

Fly a plane, catch a cold, it seems to be a law of nature.

This administration rushing a bill through congress, hogs at the trough, that seems to be a law of nature too.

But the Senate may be finding some spiny growths, so not all observed regularities in nature are reliable predictors.

At first glance, Dodd's counter-proposal on how to deal with the Bush financial mess looks like a real improvement. But there's still room for more improvement.

(URL fixed, thanks to Adam)

Seven Simple Reasons To Oppose The Bailout

I'm on board with at least six of these.

Nate Oman has an interesting, if somewhat sobering, poist at Concurring Opinions which begins as follows:

One of my students sent me the pages from Lehman's filings listing the 30 top unsecured creditors. It's a simple column of figures that makes sobering reading, even for a let-the-market-punish-them enthusiast such as myself. First past the post is CitiBank with $138 billion in unsecured bonds. Just for fun, I tried to find out what $138 billion will get you in today's world.

The comparative numbers he offers are so big as to nearly defy comprehension.

I understand the Schumpaterian arguments for size and global competitiveness, but isn't there still some virtue to keeping firms from getting too enormous?

OK, Lehman wasn't too big to fail. But two or three Lehmans might be.

And we just socialized AIG (Fed to lend $85 billion to AIG, take 80 percent stake). Did FDR do anything on this scale?