AMERICAblog: Paulson finally agrees to invest and buy into US banks
Busboy
· 1 year ago
This is a VERY BAD idea. It means that the other stockholders in the banks are under the US heavy hand. If you like the postal service, medicare and medicaid? Then, you'll love the banks.
lucky hussein
· 1 year ago
yes, those are all pretty good things, could be better. maybe. the power of a commonly-owned entitiy is profit is not the bottom line, if there are other benefits more worthwhile to a society. it doesn't have to be a heavy hand.. taxpayers might even make money. you could still have local s+ls with federal banks making sure no one gets out of control
Busboy
· 1 year ago
OK, so you aren't currently a stock investor? Rule #1: never invest in anything controlled by the federal government. You will always lose your ass. And, that goes for oil companies if they enact another windfall profits tax. Bureaucrats make very poor partners.
fostert
· 1 year ago
Umm, what? Take a look at treasury bills right now. Not a great yield, but not losing money. Do I need to explain that large numbers with minus signs in front of them aren't as good as small numbers with plus signs? And the companies with cost plus government contracts aren't doing so bad. As for the oil companies, that hits home. I own Exxon Mobil. They'll do fine in the long run. OPEC is already coming to their rescue. Windfall profit taxes? Give me break. Nobody's passing them. And if they did, would it really hurt Exxon Mobil to go a quarter or two without setting record profits? I think they can survive. And between the US government and OPEC, they'll be kept snuggly and warm. Exxon Mobile doesn't go to bed without being tucked in nicely. And the long term supply and demand trends look fine for them. And if that weren't enough, Exxon Mobil will get to buy up underpriced offshore leases and book them as assets that they can use to buy up their own stock. Works for me, how's it working for you?
Busboy
· 1 year ago
Works for me; but, ExxonMobil is in serious trouble if Iran hiccups. I wouldn't own a dime of their stock. Best thing is to stick to small US independents. Lot's of upside in the case of new discoveries, and little downside after the next few bear blasts...
lucky hussein
· 1 year ago
actually fannie and freddie were quite nice investments (and fdic-backed s+ls before them) until degulating republicans blew the system up, twice now. Once under one of the worst prez ever: reagan, and again under bush.
Also, a well-run gov't doesn't need the support of investors, and other than t-bills they there isn't much to 'invest' in. 't-bills' have been safe places to invest. until degregulating repubs blew the system up again...
gov't is you and me. it's not the 'enemy'..
Busboy
· 1 year ago
better start growing feathers; because you're an ostrich....
fostert
· 1 year ago
Well, the US postal service is the most efficient and reliable in the world. I guess you are opposed to efficiency and reliability. I've never used Medicaid or Medicare. I don't have insurance at all. I'm prevented from getting it. But I certainly wish I had Medicare or Medicaid. People I know who have those things are pretty satisfied. The few people I know who can actually get individual private insurance are constantly pissed at their insurer. So let's have this argument. But you can rest assured that these partial nationalizations will be short term. We'll be back to the fine management that the private sector has offered in a jiffy. And then we'll bail them out again when they screw up. Again.
fostert
· 1 year ago
I've said this before, but that won't stop me. Because of Paulson's delay, we're fishing downstream from Warren Buffett. Who do you think got (and will get) the better deals? If you give the smartest investor in the world a two week head start, do you think he might win? By the time we start buying assets, there will be nothing good left. But we will have socialized the risk. Woohooo!
In short, Warren's buying some shit, but he's turning it into fertilizer. We'll buy the stinkier portions, and turn it into something Warren might buy. And then make money selling.
azteckamerican
· 1 year ago
this thing failed at the moment the bailout was approved. we're simply witnessing the mechanics of failure. ain't it quite a sight?
Busboy
· 1 year ago
It failed years ago; but just came to a head. I've heard that the Chinese say that a crisis is the triumph of reality over politics.
maudegonne
· 1 year ago
When it comes to the current financial crisis, it's become pretty clear that an appearance by President Bush doesn't calm nerves. It rubs them raw. With global markets in a state of panic, with the world talking about the end of American capitalism, with ordinary citizens watching in despair as their savings vanish, we could all use some reassurance. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/bl...
maudegonne
· 1 year ago
During the Bush Administration, the national debt, now approaching ten trillion dollars, has nearly doubled. Next year’s federal budget is projected to run a half-trillion-dollar deficit, a precipitous fall from the seven-hundred-billion-dollar surplus that was projected when Bill Clinton left office. Private-sector job creation has been a sixth of what it was under President Clinton. Five million people have fallen into poverty. The number of Americans without health insurance has grown by seven million, while average premiums have nearly doubled.
Meanwhile, the principal domestic achievement of the Bush Administration has been to shift the relative burden of taxation from the rich to the rest. For the top one per cent of us, the Bush tax cuts are worth, on average, about a thousand dollars a week; for the bottom fifth, about a dollar and a half. The unfairness will only increase if the painful, yet necessary, effort to rescue the credit markets ends up preventing the rescue of our health-care system, our environment, and our physical, educational, and industrial infrastructure. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/1...
Busboy
· 1 year ago
When you perceived this was taking place? What action did you take to insure your personal survival thru the coming hard times? A serious question from the Busboy...
fostert
· 1 year ago
"A serious question from the Busboy..."
Okay, that ranks as the funniest thing I've read today. As for my survival, I don't really have to worry about it. I've already got lawyers, guns, and money. And I'm set up so that when energy gets more expensive, I make more money.
Busboy
· 1 year ago
did you forget about gold and silver? Paper money is only useful as kindling in a really bad collapse.. And, my question may be funny to you; but there are probably a hundred thousand to your "one" who even knows WTH we are talking about.
fostert
· 1 year ago
"did you forget about gold and silver? Paper money is only useful as kindling in a really bad collapse"
I own gold, but not much silver. But neither of them are worth any more than paper. Yes, I've made a lot of money on the relative difference between gold and paper. But either one of them can be manipulated. Look up the Hunt brothers if you don't believe me. It's all just theoretical value. Who knows? Maybe tulips will come back.
As for us not knowing what we're talking about, speak for yourself. There's a reason that I'm not worried. And if the complete collapse comes, I've got more guns and ammo than you or damn near anyone else. One thing my mother taught me is to never let your bottom line fall. Keep what you have and make money from there. Always lock in your position. And she was an economics professor. And she gave up a tenure opportunity to be a trust officer. Not so bad, she was investing some serious pension plans. You think anyone would let her do that if she were stupid? Oh yeah, maybe they would now. But she was doing that back when you were expected to turn a profit. Oh, for those days....
paul94611
· 1 year ago
Count me among those that agree to disagree. I think that thing are so mixed up the only thing that will work at this juncture is a complete FDIC/Federal Reserve temporary take over of the whole system. Separate each institution into good & bad banks, reopen the good banks and deal with the fully disclosed bad assets. Until the markets and its participants have clarity & transparency there can be no stability.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
Interesting. Dennis Kucinich was on Fox News yesterday along with Steven Forbes (Mr. Potato Head). The host went rambling on about the buying equity horseshit. Kucinich says the bill passed by Congress does not give Paulson the power to do that. Forbes disagreed and Kucinich held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution and said that unless Bush has now decided to ignore all parts of the Constitution Paulson must come in front of Congress and get permission to do so. Kucinich was very, very good and the host and Forbes simply shut the hell up at that point.
kh7463
· 1 year ago
Everyone keeps saying the "$700B" package, didn't they add another $150B on to it before the House passed it?
All Comments
Also, a well-run gov't doesn't need the support of investors, and other than t-bills they there isn't much to 'invest' in. 't-bills' have been safe places to invest. until degregulating repubs blew the system up again...
gov't is you and me. it's not the 'enemy'..
In short, Warren's buying some shit, but he's turning it into fertilizer. We'll buy the stinkier portions, and turn it into something Warren might buy. And then make money selling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/bl...
Meanwhile, the principal domestic achievement of the Bush Administration has been to shift the relative burden of taxation from the rich to the rest. For the top one per cent of us, the Bush tax cuts are worth, on average, about a thousand dollars a week; for the bottom fifth, about a dollar and a half. The unfairness will only increase if the painful, yet necessary, effort to rescue the credit markets ends up preventing the rescue of our health-care system, our environment, and our physical, educational, and industrial infrastructure.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/1...
Okay, that ranks as the funniest thing I've read today. As for my survival, I don't really have to worry about it. I've already got lawyers, guns, and money. And I'm set up so that when energy gets more expensive, I make more money.
I own gold, but not much silver. But neither of them are worth any more than paper. Yes, I've made a lot of money on the relative difference between gold and paper. But either one of them can be manipulated. Look up the Hunt brothers if you don't believe me. It's all just theoretical value. Who knows? Maybe tulips will come back.
As for us not knowing what we're talking about, speak for yourself. There's a reason that I'm not worried. And if the complete collapse comes, I've got more guns and ammo than you or damn near anyone else. One thing my mother taught me is to never let your bottom line fall. Keep what you have and make money from there. Always lock in your position. And she was an economics professor. And she gave up a tenure opportunity to be a trust officer. Not so bad, she was investing some serious pension plans. You think anyone would let her do that if she were stupid? Oh yeah, maybe they would now. But she was doing that back when you were expected to turn a profit. Oh, for those days....