Money vs. Credit

[y66]

s'up Bo?

 

Stopping a Financial Crisis, the Swedish Way

[kenberg]

I strongly recommend the Diane Reim show for some serious discussion on this subject.

 

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

 

I just listened to Monday morning's 10:)) AM show while I was in the gym. I thought that both the main speakers raised some very interesting points.

 

This morning's show will feature a noher round table discussion on the same topic.

Diane Rehm is an extraordinary national asset. I hadn't heard this show but I just listened to it from the net. It is very good. Thanks.

 

There are some very smart people out there. I hope that they all can get us through this.

[PassedOut]

A Bailout Above the Law

 

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency,” the original draft of the proposed bill says.

“The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this act,” the proposed bill read when it was first presented to Congress, “without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts.”

I certainly hope the congress is not so cowed by the current propaganda stampede to vote for stuff like this. And even if, as I suppose it is, the original draft is just a stake in the ground for negotiating purposes, it is a reprehensible opening shot.

[barmar]

I strongly recommend the Diane Reim show for some serious discussion on this subject.

 

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

 

I just listened to Monday morning's 10:)) AM show while I was in the gym.  I thought that both the main speakers raised some very interesting points.

 

This morning's show will feature a noher round table discussion on the same topic.

Diane Rehm is an extraordinary national asset. I hadn't heard this show but I just listened to it from the net. It is very good. Thanks.

 

There are some very smart people out there. I hope that they all can get us through this.

The little bits of her show that I've listened to seem interesting (I'm usually driving home frmo the bridge club Tuesdays at 10pm, when it's rebroadcast), but her voice makes my skin crawl and I can't stand to keep it on.

[barmar]

Will no one accept blame or be punished (except the faithful taxpayer) for these transgressions? Who must pay the price? How should they be punished? How can we define the nature of the deed? (As we must to avoid its future occurance.)

I don't think the blame can be pinpointed on any one institution. The problem is systemic.

[Al_U_Card]

So then the system must be blamed and changed! The whole problem is that speculation is endemic and encouraged as a source of profit and a motor of growth.

 

Regulations could be vastly simplified if the fundamental approach was streamlined down to productivity, efficiency and value. Only when we allow the subterfuge and the deception to become anathema will we be able really profit from our endeavor.

[kenberg]

I strongly recommend the Diane Reim show for some serious discussion on this subject.

 

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

 

I just listened to Monday morning's 10:)) AM show while I was in the gym.  I thought that both the main speakers raised some very interesting points.

 

This morning's show will feature a noher round table discussion on the same topic.

Diane Rehm is an extraordinary national asset. I hadn't heard this show but I just listened to it from the net. It is very good. Thanks.

 

There are some very smart people out there. I hope that they all can get us through this.

The little bits of her show that I've listened to seem interesting (I'm usually driving home frmo the bridge club Tuesdays at 10pm, when it's rebroadcast), but her voice makes my skin crawl and I can't stand to keep it on.

I had the same reaction initially but the quality of her program overrode this eventually. She makes every effort to get high quality guests with informed opinions on important topics and then asks probing questions that they are encouraged to answer fully. It makes these shows where everyone is talking at once look like a sick joke,

 

Anyway, the show cited above has a guest host.

 

A morning comment, not all that thoughtful, on the Paulson plan: Basically he seems to be asking Congress to say: "It's too deep for us, you do it". There seems to be lots of evidence for the opening clause. It may not be so clear the conclusion is valid.

[Al_U_Card]

When someone that you love and/or trust yells, "Duck!" you probably should.

 

When someone who has cheated you and cost you your livelihood and/or your home tells you "Bend over, or else!" I would be inclined to defer and instead to scrutinize their motives and intentions.

 

Once a liar, always a liar.

 

The Bush legacy (the boy who cired Wolfowitz!)...giving new meaning to the phrase "I don't recall having been told that I said or did whatever it might have been..."

[PassedOut]

Federal Reserve Weakens Transparency Rules

 

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve announced that it was relaxing rules that require investors who take large stakes in banks to submit to longstanding regulations on transparency and managerial control. Private equity firms have pushed for the changes because they would like to become big investors in beaten-down banks but do not want to be regulated.

In my opinion, this action goes in the wrong direction. I hope the congress refuses to be stampeded on the bailout legislation.

[DrTodd13]

"Speculators" are always the scapegoats but the term is not definable. In essence, anything you do with your money is speculation. If you buy something now you are speculating that it won't be cheaper in the future. If you hold dollars then you are speculating that dollars will appreciate against other currencies or that gains in productivity will lower prices in some market segment in which you wish to buy. Anything you do with money that you don't have an immediate need for like buying food or shelter is an investment and investment is indistinguishable from "speculation."

[kenberg]

I've never said a bad word about speculators, nor, with regard to an earlier post, have I blamed the mess on the free market. I see the problem differently. We have, for better or for worse, an economy where government has made at least some claims that it will watch the big money boys and girls and keep the game from being too badly rigged. Federal Reserve Chairs, Treasury Secretaries, Senators, Representatives, all have taken on the job of seeing that the economy flourishes. I realize you (Dr. Todd) think this is a bad idea and maybe it is but what is really bad is to take on the job and then screw it up.

Whatever its merits, I doubt we will ever run our society on the general principles that I believe that you advocate. I am not much of a radical thinker so I am fine with the general idea of how we run the country and the economy but the current situation does give a guy pause. A Christian Scientist with appendicitis, as the expression goes. A friend has been suggesting for years that gold stocks are the way to go. Maybe so.

 

And Al: I like "The boy who cried Wolfowitz".

[Al_U_Card]

They are, appropriately, as thick as thieves. The cronyism and the loyalty before competence creed goes beyond partisan boundries.

 

They want to REDUCE transparency? They are almost so opaque that they cannot distinguish one lie from the other in the resulting darkness. Just keep on denying and trumpet the jingoistic sentiment or the sky is falling rhetoric.

 

Like I said. The fundamental problem lies in the difference between money and credit and the fact that those in control of the wealth want to insure that it stays that way.

 

Would be interesting if, like campaign contributions, that no one could own assets or make more that, say $ 1,000,000 per year. Any excess derived or produced would be subject to disclosure and redistribution (with appropriate future credit for eventual shortfalls...as in how many years of life expectancy that you have left, say).