I don’t think Phil Gramm or Carly Fiorina could run a major corporation either.

There are also a lot of CEOs today who’s skills are being called into question. It was probably a lot easier in the Clinton years.

But it will be a tight economy at least through January.”

probably January of 2010, not 4 months from now.

The market fears having to mark ALL their assets to market pricing, at a time when fire sales determine the value.

THAT is definitely one of the crazy things about a marketplace that can’t easily distinguish between this and that.

Sure, there has to be a markdown, but it has to be somewhat rational and not hit bottom just because nobody knows true values. Sure, it will probably reach beyond the companies it probably HAS to pound. But, there has to be a realization in the market that this over-reach of psychological uncertainty will also create some buy-back potential. The net effect would be drop-off…buy-some-back…drop-off…buy-some-back, until there’s a stabilization in the real-world housing market(s) (probably early to mid-2010) and then the financials will probably settle out too.

What’s most important is for this drop-off process to happen here and there and here and there and not just all at once. Now that, all at once, would be a killer. Some here and some there gives people time to adjust, even if it’s a very hard drop-off for one or two firms here and there. The market must be protected from the worse disaster, the huge everybody falls off the edge at once crash.

If AIG can get support from it’s related firms (or anybody with cash) then GREAT! If not, then that’s a big drop-off and a lot of people will get hurt. But, either way there’s a mark-down of assets and some people getting hurt. It’s apparently inevitable.

BTW, the idea of the necessity for a big drop-off to burn out the dead wood isn’t necessarily good. If it’s naturally occurring it could be fine. But, if it’s a contrived market manipulation to kill off weaker firms so the stronger can ’steal’ their assets, then that’s very bad. Having everyone playing so close to the vest that they don’t ever get exposed to risk would hurt the world economy for decades. It’s better that everyone NOT have to raise their skirts all the way. It’s better nobody should be able to manipulate the markets. It’s better for government to regulate than for dog-eat-dog economics to dominate.

Why do Republicans hate Americans?
They gut our economy whenever they get a chance and send our children to fight unprovoked wars.
Why?

It’s part of their political economic war. See, Democrats have been threatening for some time to actually fix some economic fairness issues and that would endanger the Republican ‘permanent majority’, so they had to stop any and everything Dems tried to do to fix problems. They didn’t want Dems to get any credit for doing good cause that might let Dems get back into the majority. They had to spend us into near bankruptcy to prevent Dems from having money to fix anything (near waterboarding in bathtub and all that). They even rigged mortgages to go bad, so people would lose their homes and perhaps their right to vote.

Of course, this weak government now can’t help bail out rich guys either. Fancy that.

But, at least George W. Bush got to be preznit two terms and upstaged his father. That makes it aaaaalllllllllll worthwhile.

Right?

I imagine AIG has a Dickensian street waif, smudged face, with tin cup in hand, asking, “Guvnor, spare a mite $40 billion?”

Heh, pretty good.

The kid’s rich. In my day we didn’t have tin cups.

I just love it when Carly Fiorini gets on tv and complains about excessive CEO pay packages. Duuuh

Her idea of ‘excessive’ is probably similar to McCain’s idea of ‘excessive regulation’.

She doesn’t believe any pay package would be excessive.
He believes ANY regulation is excessive.

Time to put the Chicago school economics in it’s proper place in the dust bin of histories failed economic policies!

Like the Penguin in the Batman stories it would have been so much better to abort the fat little pig, but no, Republicans demand we respect ALL life and suffer.

The Feds are the “only” people who can “print” cash.

Tell that to Treasury Secretary Paulson.

You would have to come to the conclusion that the Government was well aware of what was coming down the pike and just let it happen anyway

“Let”? Forgive me, no. “Made” is the word. The government MADE this happen.

Remember, it was Phil Gramm, economics adviser to John McCain (who knew he was going to run for president this year), who changed a Great Depression-era law, to create this mess. It’s the housing mortgage crisis come to Wall Street. All that mortgage paper is iffy and nobody knows how to value it, so stock prices are all over the place.

Also, don’t forget who the Bush administration put in charge of Fannie & Freddie, who John McCain said long ago was a problem for the government which should sell them off. Now that McCain is running for president his policies are plaguing America.

They will bail AIG out…they have to.

If AIG goes down, it’s game over.

Setting: Metropolis before anybody’s heard of AIG, er, Superman.
Lois Lane is falling off a building, screaming her head off and then…

Superman swoops out of nowhere and grabs her and says, “I’ve got you”.

Lois, shocked, but being no dummy says, “You’ve got me? Who’s got you?”