Interfluidity explains the costs so clearly that the post can’t really be improved upon. So I’ll guote the meat of it: Suppose we pass the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”, and a depression comes anyway, and we cannot raise taxes (blood, turnips, all of that), and we cannot borrow from abroad (because our paymasters have tired of us). Sure, the Federal Reserve will print money, because the debt must be paid and the government ...

It always amazes me that there are so many superlatives in this country for which, despite their presumed uniqueness or rarity, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply: The Biggest Tax Increase in History The Most Accurate Bombing Campaign Ever The Most Liberal Democrat in the Senate Top Al Qaeda Commander The Most Important Election Ever Call me cynical if you must, but I suspect there may be just a teeny bit of overexaggeration going ...

This important article points out that Paulson and Cox were indeed part of the problems which created the Big $hit Pile and the Big Me$$. Both Paulson and Cox worked to deregulate, defund, and weaken actual oversight. Trust the market. Let the Big Investment Banker Boiz call the shots. Paulson was part of the band of Merry Banksters who approached the SEC back in April, 2004 (earliest as far as we find documented, but the ...

I'd missed this when it happened back in April on ABC: MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have any doubt that Barack Obama shares your sense of patriotism? SEN. MCCAIN: I'm sure he's very patriotic, but his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question...how can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings which could have or did kill innocent people? MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Obama says he was eight years old when that was happening. SEN. ...

Of course. Fan-fucking-tastic: It will be one of the world’s largest asset management firms with an impressive $700 billion war chest... Treasury officials do not plan to manage the mortgage assets on their own. Instead, they will outsource nearly all of the work to professionals... The government will hire only a bare-bones internal staff of about two dozen people with expertise in asset management, accounting and legal issues, according to administration officials, and will outsource ...

Who are, of course, extremely willing to be p0wned. Check out this video from Harvard, Kenneth Roggoff Greg Mankiw (!), whose views are summarized by Credit Slips here: The liquidity crisis isn’t real. Or, to restate it: Any liquidity crisis is caused by the promise of a government bailout. Greg said that his many friends in investment banking said that there is plenty of money to invest in financial services, but right now it is ...

Jonathan Weil at Bloomberg explains why we’re getting such a terrible bill everyone knows won’t work (emphasis mine): That brings us to this question: Why would a smart guy like Hank Paulson — the former boss of Goldman Sachs — advance such a dumb, shady plan? Let us count the reasons: No. 1: It delays our national reckoning until after the presidential election. Paulson first floated a bailout Sept. 18, at the very hour when ...

There’s a quote that’s interested me for a while: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. I’ve seen ...

Once again, the invaluable McClatchy has more of interest than Pravda on the Potomac or Izvestia on the Hudson. Michael MacDonald of Williams College has an interesting Op-Ed on the end of the Neoliberal era. [Caution: Clinton bashing revisionism ahead!] As we watch market values plummet and politicians debate — at last — the proper relationship between government and finance, an era in American history is ending. It wasn’t understood as an era during its ...

Yep, that’s your “emergency” right there in section 503 of the Senate’s version Hank Paulson’s trillion dollar giveaway. Jeebus. Couldn’t they at least have exempted something with a real public benefit? My suggestion: SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN LATEX STRAP-ONS DESIGNED FOR USE BY HAWT LESBIANS WHEN PEGGING THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Or words to that effect. Readers, I’m sure you have your own suggestions. UPDATE And what the fuck is ...

Ian Welsh: I can’t think of any way to sugar coat this, I’m afraid. It’s a bad bill and it isn’t just that Barack Obama voted for it, it’s that everything I’m hearing from the Hill says that he’s been actively whipping it, not just in the Senate but in the House. Barack didn’t hold his nose and vote for this, he made it his bill as much as it is Paulson’s. With this bill ...

According to the Constitution, all appropriations bills must originate in the House of Representatives. So what was Harry Reid to do, with the House out of session and faced with the need to immediately give Wall Street $700 billion? What he did was dig up an appropriations bill that had originated in the House and then been sent over to the Senate, where it bogged down. This happened IN 2002. Moreover, the Senate version had ...

Boy, I wish I had thought of this, and why no one else save some smart readers have focused on the mechanics of the Paulson plan operations is beyond me. This bill is moving ahead like the Titanic.....with high odds of similar outcomes.Hoisted from comments, we turn the mike over to reader Don:The bailout, I mean rescue plan, can be seen as nothing less than a new Ponzi scheme. It works like this:Fed as only ...

A top-level conclusion from my book Brave New War is that security in the future, from economic to physical to environmental to social, will be measured by our responses to a never-ending series of global systemic shocks derived from a plethora of sources. Unfortunately, we are likely to fare badly. The reasons for this are simple, the global system is: Too Big. Simply, the system's scale is far beyond the ability of nation-states, or a ...

The assertion I’ve seen fairly often in the last week or so is that the credit markets are shutting down - businesses can’t get the credit they need to operate. Now I run a business, so I understand in my own small way the need for credit. We have a loan outstanding, a credit line, credit cards, and even a home equity line of credit (with no balance). Nobody’s called us up or sent us ...

My fellow Americans, I have good news. After an intense investigation, our courageous right-wing has discovered who's to blame for our current catastrophe. It's who we suspected all along!!!!! 1. The Darkies 2. The Bleeding Heart Liberals, AKA The Joos 3. The Homos (pending) 4. Witches (pending) Rick Perlstein has more. UPDATE: After interrogation, the suspects have also admitted to using their sorcery to poison the town well. —Jonathan Schwarz