The Obama administration is wisely being cautious in deciding how to shore up the nation’s faltering financial system, which is suffering from a new wave of losses. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman raised concerns about one proposal that is gaining currency with some policymakers: Create a government-owned “aggregator bank” that would buy up bad bank assets at fair value. Krugman questioned what “fair value” would mean and said the policy could amount to making huge gifts to bank shareholders at taxpayer expense. “I suspect that taxpayers are about to get another raw deal,” he wrote, “and that we’re about to get another financial rescue plan that fails to do the job.”
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44 Comments
Paul Krugman, you are so far out of your league its not funny. I hear the National Enquirer is hiring.
Forgiving/paying off every American’s credit card debt would have done more to shore up the economy than any Wall Street bailout. Banks would be begging us to borrow money instead of hoarding it.
Americans would be on a buying frenzy with excellent credit ratings….new cars, homes, clothes, appliances, etc.
The new credit could have even come with the stipulation that only American manufactured products could be purchased with the new credit.
Thinking outside the box is just too difficult for some.
“Chrisfrommactown” addresses a Nobel laureate –
“Paul Krugman, you are so far out of your league its not funny”
#
Chrisfrommactown
Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:07 am | Permalink
Paul Krugman, you are so far out of your league its not funny. I hear the National Enquirer is hiring.
=========================================================
Feel free to explain how Paul is out of his league. He is, after all, a Nobel laureate, and your credentials are? The use of multi-syllabic words is okay, assuming, of course, you know any.
“Forgiving/paying off every American’s credit card debt would have done more to shore up the economy than any Wall Street bailout.”—misfit, or whatever the nic.
What an incredibly stupid idea, rewarding the most irresponsible of society. And setting them up to simply do it again with encouragement.
How old are you misfit….five years old?
I thought maybe the whiiiiiining would be out of their system by now. But nooooooooooooo.
Should we call whiiine one one and get the waaaaaaaambulance?
Ya know Walker, they pfffft at the Nobel prize because, ya know, it’s a buncha liberal jews who win it anyway.
And then they support israeli terrorists.
“I suspect that taxpayers are about to get another raw deal,” he wrote
We know the government loves us because we are all about to be f*cked.
I’m reminded of the lispy voice of Sylvester the Cat “Sufferin’ Succotash” when I think it was his character being hit repeatedly on the head with a hammer and getting more bumps on his head “I’ll have another lump please.”
Paying off everyones credit cards “Thinking outside the box is just too difficult for some.”
HEY!!! Didn’t you get the OBAMA email?
There is a New Era of Responsibility afoot.
You gotta start paying your own g*ddamn bills.
(except rich bankers, financial investment companies, CEO’s,auto companies, union workers, etc….)
The fact of the matter is that no one really understands what went so badly wrong, so quickly, and no one really knows how to set it right.
So Washington will do what it knows how to do: Throw money at it. And, as usual, it will throw money at those who are connected. It has always been so; it will always be so. And the bigger, and more regulatory and intrusive the gov’t gets the more that will be so.
Some things NEVER change. As KFG likes to say. when all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail . . .
So Washington will do what it knows how to do: Throw money at it.
Sometimes I think the medical phrase, “do no harm” would be fitting for Congress. Perhaps we would be better off if they took the month off. Did nothing.
Although I am not the greatest economist in the universe (like Chrisfrommactown must think he is) I do have some disagreement with Krugman on this. I think the keo would be in determining just what value to pay for these ‘assets’. I seem to recall that the RTC did a fairly decent job when we went through this before with the S&L meltdown.
I do agree with the Nobel Prizewinner that we should not overpay for these so-called assets.
You know, Paul Krugman did not win a Nobel Prize. There is no Nobel Prize for economics. Rather he received a prize in honor of Nobel for economics.
Showing how wasteful Republicans are, Paulson spent $10 billion dollars buying up shares of his former employer, Goldman-Sachs. Democrat Warren Buffett spent half that amount and received four times as many shares. I’m wondering that if I was an employee of an investment firm and made such a lousy purchase like Paulson whether or not I’d be able to keep my job. Either the Republicans are incompetent or they are just bilking the taxpayers. Oh wait, it’s probably both.
We haven’t heard from our other resident world-class economics expert – Paul Rossell – in a long time. Perhaps he could offer his superior services to solve the country’s economic problems for us.
A government owned bank?
I thought that was what The Fed was??
Hahahahahahahaha, private board members have caused this.
They raped the country and bankrupted all of us. And once more…I told you so.
STOP PAYING YOUR MORTGAGES or keep drowning.
Maybe when you don’t get that tax refund, maybe then you’ll understand?
American manufactured products
And just how many of them are there?
Just nationalize the banking system. We’re going to be stuck for their screw ups anyway, might as well own them.
In the immortal words of Collin Powell, You Break it, You Own It, applies to the economy too.
the whole banking issue and the role of government has been argued for 200 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notJuFGXQ9w
might as well own them.
You do own them by way of preferred stock the US bought in them.
Instead of directing the money be used to offset the bad loans, help refinance subprime mortgages, or any other direction on what the banks should do with the money: We handed them a check!
It’s up to the same CEO’s/BOD’s that got each individual bank into trouble in the first place, to decide how to spend OUR money……
Funny how they handed $350 billion to the banks with no oversight, no plan, nothing. Yet when it came to the auto makers, they wanted details, details, details.
I’m not saying that either bailout was right or wrong, just pointing out the difference. Y’all can take it from there, as I’m sure you will.
I am starting to wonder wtf the banks are doing as the bail out doesn’t seem to be working for them…they just need more and more. But hey I am NO economist.
Do you NOT get it?
Are you THAT dense?
THIS IS ALL BEING ENGINEERED.
It will not stop until either:
A)The Dollar collapses and the Amero is brought into light; if that happens…1929-1941 will look like a damned picnic.
or
B)We The People wake the Hell up and take back our country. And that means we stop COLLECTIVELY AS ONE paying the fraudulent income tax and stop paying those mortgages.
The “bail-out” bank robbery is letting the banker’s and elite buy up all of the real assets and going overseas with the wealth, leaving us nothing more than THIRD WORLD status.
IS it not obvious yet? I’ve been spouting this crap for 3 YEARS…I’m no (and none of us “truther’s” are) fortune teller(s), it’s in the IMF documents.
You defeatists that just want to hand over the rest of our wealth to people like Paulson and Bernanke and their bosses in some “Nationalized” bank are rediculous and are nothing less than traitor’s and deserve what a traitor gets.
Scumbags or American’s? Who are you people?
REVOLUTION IS COMING…which side will you be on?
They are paying bonuses and dividends and buying up other companies.
One of the reasons BofA had to ask for more bailout money was their purchase of Merril Lynch. And Thain of ML paid out bonuses in December, before the takeover, instead of in January as was the company custom.
From Yahoo:
“Uneasiness about the stability of the financial sector continued to plague investors Thursday, and bank stocks took another beating. Quarterly financial reports showing steep profit declines and big loan losses have investors worried that the financial crisis is far from over, and that the government’s efforts to prop up banks might not be enough to prevent a major failure.
Meanwhile, media reports Thursday said former Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain has resigned from Bank of America Corp. CNBC and The Wall Street Journal’s Web site are reporting that Thain resigned after a meeting of Bank of America executives Thursday morning. The reports followed news that Merrill had moved up its year-end bonuses, doling out cash just days before it was officially acquired by Bank of America on Jan. 1.
Bank of America has increasingly been criticized in recent weeks for its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which reported a $15.45 billion fourth-quarter loss last week.
Bank of America was the biggest loser among troubled financial stocks Thursday and extended its losses after the Thain announcement.”
There’s something fundamentally flawed with a system that allows bailed out financial institutions to pay out bonuses and allows the same to buy out their competition using those same bailout funds. And does so with no oversight whatsoever. About the only thing you can get a loan on is income tax refunds, using bailout funds.
REVOLUTION IS COMING…which side will you be on?
Not sure there will be what some see as a typical fight. I’m betting there will be MANY sides. The country would break up. Factions would emerge. Direct confrontation with US Military (which will fight a domestic battle) will emerge temporarily – until groups get their but ts kicked. So it will be underground guerrilla warfare. Bartering system will become the new economy.
FOR SALE: Leftover dehydrated food. Purchased in 1969 for temporary move to Canada. Fresh as new $500 OBO…
“fundamentally flawed”
You think? Could you just say, “screwed up”?
“Monkeyhawk
Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:38 am | Permalink
“Chrisfrommactown” addresses a Nobel laureate –
“Paul Krugman, you are so far out of your league its not funny””
LMFAO!!!!
I think the military wouldn’t fight the people. I mean, they all have families that stand to lose all that they have as well. Wouldn’t they want to defend their country as well?
Regardless, I think you’re right, there would be many factions…a new civil war might emerge. And those that think that owning a gun is best left to the national guard (nevermind that the national guard didn’t even come into being until The Militia Act of 1909 so is not even the militia that the Constitution speaks of) will be screwed and left out in the Change.
Too bad it may have to come to it…but we stupid American’s (in name only) deserve every bit of it.
Wall Street pared losses after comments from the White House that they must move as quickly as possible on a stimulus package and that President Barack Obama’s administration will do everything possible to restore growth and normalize the markets.
“The stimulus package definitely helps from a psychological standpoint in the near term,” said Benjamin Halliburton, managing director at Tradition Capital Management in Summit, New Jersey.
“There is the problem of getting the stimulus into the economy and the speed at which that will occur. so anything they can do to expedite that will be viewed as a positive.”
The WTO reviewed the bankng systems of their 130 country membership and the US came in a 40th place the UK at 44th spot.Top rated for sound banking practices with sufficint oversight were countries we call socailists. Canada, Australia, Luxembourg, followed closely be the Nordic countries. The Nordic countres are bailing out Iceland who followed our banking practices and now they’re a basket case too. The 1st 3 countries are not bailing domestic banks but are contributing to stabilize the US! I read where the Canadians are matching up to 20% of the total guarantee the amounts the US is giving the Big 3. And their economy is 1/10th the size of ours. Damn leftist, dangerous…all of them!
Pleef You should look into what happened to the bonus Army( all ex military and their famlies) or Kent State(unarmed students) if you think that the military wont attack citzens
Oh I know Tom…but there are a lot more not-so-blind dumb asses in the Army now. A lot more Smedley Butler types. Most of the new military joined after 9-11 and most of them know that they’ve been lied to.
We can’t forget all of the vets now, the ones that are a tad mad at how things are going and that have the quality training that the Army delivers. The times, they are a-changin’.
Nobody knows how this will end (nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world…ever (and Rome got to be pretty damned corrupt).
I find it extremely funny how the “left” think they “have a plan” now. “That damned Bushco messed it all up, and we never had a hand in it”, cries “the left”.
BS, unless you were living as some hippy out in some commune, you have blood on your hands as well.
Poor Repubs. whining in the House, sit back, your opinions mean nothing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090122/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_stimulus_13
Phantom,
Do you really believe it’s a left/right “thang”? And do you actually believe that you are “one of them”? And do you really believe that the “stimulus” plan is there to help any of us…including you?
Quit being Sofa King we Todd id.
“your opinions mean nothing”…
You want a dictatorship? You’re the enemy.
The problem is that all economics depends heavily on Voodoo, or Umbanda as it is known in some parts. The equasions that describe our economy are only solvable to an approximation, so specific predictions depend some sort of divine guidance and/or intervention. Given the forms that divine intervention has taken in recent decades, we all ought to be satisfied with approximations!
eh?
We’re all gambling with Monopoly money.
We’re spending money we don’t have by borrowing it from people who own us now, ie; China and multi-national Corporations.
It’s the nihilistic economic system ever devised by man.
…it’s the MOST nihilistic, that is.
Glenn Beck…marginalized MY candidate Ron Paul for the ENTIRE run. Now he wants to jump on board?
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=Ron%20Paul%20Beck&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#
“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”
-Mahatma Ghandi
“At the beginning of a great national change, the patriot is a scarce man: scorned, ridiculed and forgotten. When his cause succeeds, however, all men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot”. -Mark Twain