WEDNESDAY: John Tamny at RealClearMarkets says Treasury's and the Federal Reserve's underlying economic assumptions for curing what ails us----inflation, commodities bubbles, devaluation of the dollar and the housing/banking crisies---are dead wrong.
UPDATE: Larry Kudlow applauded Hank Paulson earlier today for saying there would be no more federal bailouts and for preserving the risk of failure. So what happened to Paulson in the last few hours?
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While I reserve the right to change my mind as I mull new information over the next few days, I cannot see how the Fed's move to partially nationalize and bail out AIG with an $85 billion "emergency loan" can be good for our country in the short, medium or long term.
We have become a hysterical, regressed people clamoring for government of the quick fix to right every wrong, to blunt every accountability and to forestall every pain. Our founding fathers never meant for government to play this role in our lives. The AIG bailout announcement tonight shocks me. We're on the road to socialism and it's going to come back to haunt us sooner rather than later. When government tries to fix a problem like AIG, it ends up creating 10 others worse than the first and only forestalls the inevitable.
I've never cared for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, but tonight I fear him and think he and Ben Bernanke are taking us down a treacherous road from which we may not soon recover. I need to attempt to figure out what they are thinking. Are they doing this for the benefit of the Sovereign Wealth Funds again? Does Paulson have some sort of economic messiah complex?
God save this country from the likes of Mr. All Things To All People, Hank Paulson who is now the Chief Nanny at Treasury.
Just remember....Hank Paulson: Republican. Ben Bernacke: Republican. Current Administration: Republican. Who would have guessed the Republicans would turn Wall Street into a bunch of welfare queen socialists???
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the bailout of AIG (though, if your Lehman Bros. you've gotta wonder why you were left to die when others were given life-saving interventions). It's the $70 BILLION given to banks to shore up their reserves. It's the (up to) $100 BILLION given to Fannie and Freddie. Where exactly are we getting this money from? Or, more to the point, which country is loaning us this money to nationalize Wall Street?
It's so easy to scream Democrat verses Republican here, Vienna. But in truth it's more complex than that. Many of the policies that have failed us were started back in the Clinton years and are now bearing this fruit.
ReplyDeleteStill it is wrong too to say the Bush years have not added some fuel to the fire. I believe the devaluation of the dollar is the Bush administration's greatest failing and needs to be corrected sooner rather than later. I'll be writing and linking more on this soon.
I meant to add that I would bet good money that someone would say this is all somehow Bill Clinton's fault. It always is...
ReplyDeleteI just thought it would be important to note that for all the screaming those on the right do about how the democrats are "marxists", "communists" and "socialists", when push came to shove last night, the republicans were the ones making socialist welfare queens out of AIG.
Agreed on last night's action. As I have said, I'm truly appalled by this well meaning but totally inappropriate action and think Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke have lost it.
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