Comments on: Bailout For Billionaires: The “Other Half” Living Off The Rest Of Us http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/ Firedoglake weblog Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:32:57 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: bgrothus http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655702 bgrothus Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:05:55 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655702 <p>Ohh, signed by all those economists with “foreign names.” If we are elected, we’ll be bringing those jobs to Americans!!</p> <p>Sarah Palin</p> Ohh, signed by all those economists with “foreign names.” If we are elected, we’ll be bringing those jobs to Americans!!

Sarah Palin

]]> By: tjbs http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655695 tjbs Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:02:24 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655695 <p>To RedHen It’s not about penalizing it’s about removing the drunk from behind the wheel. If we tend to the injured needs they are creating worse realities ahead. Get the drunks from behind the wheel.</p> To RedHen It’s not about penalizing it’s about removing the drunk from behind the wheel. If we tend to the injured needs they are creating worse realities ahead. Get the drunks from behind the wheel.

]]> By: klynn http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655661 klynn Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:32:28 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655661 <p>Here’s the letter from 170 of the nation’s academic economists. We the People need to sign on too.</p> <p><a href="http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/Papers/mortgage_protest.htm" rel="nofollow">http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/.....rotest.htm</a></p> <blockquote><p>To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:</p> <p>As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:</p></blockquote> <blockquote><p>1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.</p> <p>2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.</p> <p>3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America’s dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted. </p> <p>For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come. </p></blockquote> Here’s the letter from 170 of the nation’s academic economists. We the People need to sign on too.

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/…..rotest.htm

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:

As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:

1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America’s dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.

For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.

]]> By: RedHen http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655656 RedHen Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:30:12 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655656 <p>I’m really tired of the amateur economists on this site undermining needed action to protect my retirement fund and access to credit that I and other ordinary Americans and small businesses (like FDL) need to meet expenses. It’s as if I’ve been hit by a drunk driver (Wall St. and lack of oversight by the executive branch) and I’m lying injured by the side of the road. Many on this site are so preoccupied with penalizing the drunk driver that my injuries and the threat to my health are being ignored or not understood. If there is not prompt and effective intervention in the current financial situation, available credit will effectively disappear (no credit card loans allowed), 100% payment on outstanding balances will be required every month, car and home loans will not be available, jobs will be lost, payment on money market fund withdrawals could be delayed, and companies may not be able to borrow to meet payroll in a timely fashion - just to name a few likely events. It’s time to prevent my hemorrhaging by the side of the road. There will be time to pass stronger drunk driving laws and put the bastards in jail. I’m grateful that people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are ready to step up to the plate and take on the Bush administration’s one-sided plan and many in their own party to do the right thing at the right time.</p> I’m really tired of the amateur economists on this site undermining needed action to protect my retirement fund and access to credit that I and other ordinary Americans and small businesses (like FDL) need to meet expenses. It’s as if I’ve been hit by a drunk driver (Wall St. and lack of oversight by the executive branch) and I’m lying injured by the side of the road. Many on this site are so preoccupied with penalizing the drunk driver that my injuries and the threat to my health are being ignored or not understood. If there is not prompt and effective intervention in the current financial situation, available credit will effectively disappear (no credit card loans allowed), 100% payment on outstanding balances will be required every month, car and home loans will not be available, jobs will be lost, payment on money market fund withdrawals could be delayed, and companies may not be able to borrow to meet payroll in a timely fashion – just to name a few likely events. It’s time to prevent my hemorrhaging by the side of the road. There will be time to pass stronger drunk driving laws and put the bastards in jail. I’m grateful that people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are ready to step up to the plate and take on the Bush administration’s one-sided plan and many in their own party to do the right thing at the right time.

]]> By: klynn http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655645 klynn Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:26:29 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655645 <p>I wonder if the residents of D.C. might have a true case of Taxation without Representation?</p> <p>Boston Tea Party Time?</p> I wonder if the residents of D.C. might have a true case of Taxation without Representation?

Boston Tea Party Time?

]]> By: bgrothus http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655640 bgrothus Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:23:50 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655640 <p>Michael Moore has a good letter up today: bloodless coup.</p> <p>I can’t use the linky function, get the 404 each time. But michaelmooredotcom does it, find his letter.</p> Michael Moore has a good letter up today: bloodless coup.

I can’t use the linky function, get the 404 each time. But michaelmooredotcom does it, find his letter.

]]> By: klynn http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655634 klynn Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:20:31 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655634 <p>Someone needs to remind Burgess that it is his beloved Pres. Bush from his home state who is, above all, responsible for “pushing” this through at the last minute. His politicizing of the issue has been disgusting during a crucial time.</p> <p>He needs to zip it.</p> Someone needs to remind Burgess that it is his beloved Pres. Bush from his home state who is, above all, responsible for “pushing” this through at the last minute. His politicizing of the issue has been disgusting during a crucial time.

He needs to zip it.

]]> By: foothillsmike http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655632 foothillsmike Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:17:53 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655632 <p>Would it be possible to file a class action lawsuit against these gov’t. critters for failure to do due diligence?</p> Would it be possible to file a class action lawsuit against these gov’t. critters for failure to do due diligence?

]]> By: klynn http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655631 klynn Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:17:30 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655631 <p>Keep calling. You will eventually get a live body.</p> Keep calling. You will eventually get a live body.

]]> By: SouthernDragon http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655628 SouthernDragon Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:11:08 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/29/bailout-for-billionaires-the-other-half-living-off-the-rest-of-us/#comment-1655628 <p>I don’t want to talk about it. So there. *g*</p> I don’t want to talk about it. So there. *g*

]]>