So Corey let's review..... 1) earmarks 2) 20 cents of every dollar is actually stimulus 3) said stimulus won't find its way into the economy until years from now Sounds great. Who asked the question about why the opposition would like some changes? Thank you Mr President and Madam Speaker, may I have another......
How bout blogs and articles dedicated to outing the 11 Dems who dare vote against Der Obama? http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/01/house_passes_stimulus_bill_oba.html?ft=1&f=97248522
Corey, The single most interesting thing to come out of the vote was the Dem mutineers -v- not a single stray Republican......what should that tell us about that ugly piece of pork....this is not a good start for President Obama. Frankly, I expected more leadership from him.....he's let the inmates loose just at the time when he needs to be the nation's President and chief executive. This bill is a BAD bill for our country, plain and simple and he's letting these political hacks bloat the federal budget for generations to come......that is not economic stimulus.
T, The single greatest reason I do not care for Obama is the actions vs words test. I think Bush failed this as well, but I believe he failed because he TRIED to reach across the aisle and got his hands bit.. Obama tells you he is a uniter, and them appoints Rahm his right hand man. (protip for those who don't know: Rahm hates any and all Republicans. It is a frat-boy competitive mindset to all he does). Obama tells you we'll have accountability and eliminate pork and the the first major fiscal bill passed is one that will be choking future generations of Americans for 40 years at least... I mean, this bill is a real Pelosi sandwich... I've been warning people for years about this and they just won't listen. I hope to God the Dems find a way to get control of themselves.
Corey, that is a classic line....let us just hope that we are not going to be forced to choke it down.
The Republicans finally grew some balls and got it right on the House vote yesterday. This is the biggest boondoggle in history and Obama needed GOP support to provide him some cover when this is fully exposed for what it is. It is rare that a preside nt can break all records for spending in his first two weeks but Obama is poised to do just that.
Not defending the stimulus package because it hurts my head just to think about some of the ramifications of what is is supposed to do and I choose not to get into it but does anyone have any other clear ideas? What should be done to whipsaw this economy back into shape? I know....let's give hundreds of billions to business owners and investment bankers and after they have tired themselves out satisfying all of the wealthy whims they can possibly muster for themselves personally then I am sure there will be some form of trickle down for the rest of us.....right? If you don't agree with scenario two then how about some reasonable....substantial....and fast acting alternatives?
Cut taxes. Freeze spending.Trim government at all levels.Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Close borders as best as possible. Deport all illegals. Aid to banks dependent on the restructuring of debt at the street level. No bonuses of any kind to employees or management of bank, business etc. on federal bailout.
how about we let business fail and let others take their place rather than entitling all of them to a hand out for running their corps into the ground? Also, why does it have to be fast? maybe the best answer is one that would take time. That is the problem with us today. We all want quick returns on safe and guaranteed living. Those are all things earned, not guaranteed..
Krebs for President!! Sound ideas Corey but I wonder about the failure of banks devastating the economy even further. They can't seem to be trusted at this point to make it on their own.
Dave, Because without the risk of failure, they know they have a nice soft pillow to land on called the American taxpayer who is being forced to provide safe haven for the jumper by the Federal government. Hell, Federal regulations and shoddy policy (on both sides) got us into this mess..Now we expect those same people who dropped the ball to be able to pick it up and drive the length of the field? Hell no, let them fail. Put it in simpler terms: If you and I never had to worry about dying... and weren't family men (legal disclaimer to cover our nads there).. How would we be living our lives? With no real risk of accountability, you get exactly that..
I agree. I've debated previously with B-Terry my opinion of the lack of competence in the banking community. Some significant failures would serve to drive the point home that you can't make risk-based decisions that put your capital and your depositors' funds at risk without preparing for the worst-case consequences in the form of reserves. They failed to do that. They could have reduced profits until the reserves were heavily funded, but no-o-o-o-o-o. They were too greedy and short-sighted. They dropped the ball big-time.
Yeah...but let's make sure the guy who made $650,000.00 in 2004 makes at least that in a year in which the rest of the economy is going in the tank. Let's even use bail-out money if we have to because no sacrifices should made on Wall Street for this mess they have helped to put us all in.
They helped.... they are but one part, yet you continue to single them out. You're still championing politicians on this board that were a part of some rather tragic legislation that put the banks in that position as well, you still seem to refuse to take them to task unless they have an R after their name. Lots of blame to go around... But anywho, I am anti-bailout.
Here we go again..... :lol: No doubt there are many, many bankers and other business people that dropped the ball big time and then proceeded to step on their crank. But I think it this unique, extraordinary situation that we find ourselves, that is being ovely simplistic. You're a financial guy so you can appreciate this example. You Mr Banker bought a bond rated AAA by the rating agencies, credit enhanced and insured against default. The market was very liquid and deep, the bond is of short duration so your term risk is negligible and your credit risk is zero. Correct? What level of reserves do you hold against that asset? The answer approaches zero.....you have a very high quality, very liquid asset on your balance sheet as a source of liquidity for any cash need you may have. So far so good..... You wake up the next morning after the Fannie/Freddie/Lehman/AIG debacle and find that lo and behold your AAA rated - insured bond is now trading for 20 cents on the dollar - to which you wonder WTF? :shock: Your asset has just lost 80% of its value.......you obviously don't want to sell it a such a distressed price and indeed there is no reason to sell it because the bond is still performing throwing off cash as promised and you don't have a compelling cash need. So you hang on to it.......right? It gets worse..... Your CFO arrives at your office to inform you that, lo and behold, your quarterly earnings are going to be a diaster because you have to write down the value of that asset as a result of the mark to market accounting provisions.......indeed the losses are such that it has a material impact on all important capital ratios taking you from a "well capitalized" to less than "adequately capitalized". It gets worse..... Large depositors and your bank lending partners prudently place limits on credit lines and deposits based upon the risk profile of their trading partners. Several of your large depositors and correspondent banks take notice of your deteriorating capital position and begin to withdraw their lines and cash from your institution putting such a strain on your liquidity position that the basic viability of your instition is in jeopardy risking failure, a shotgun marriage or federal conservancy. :shock: Now that was obviously a dramatic oversimplification but the essential elements of the above story is at the core what made this situation so scary and unique and elevated the systemic risk of the entirety of the capital markets almost to the breaking point.......there are many bankers small and large who found themselves in a train wreck, in spite of very prudent managment.
We've done that many times before. At one time the US led the world in the production of TVs. GE, Motorola, Dumont, Curtis Mathis to name a few. We let that businees go to others. Samsung, Sony, Toshiba etc. Same with other electronics. Same with steel. We innovate and come up with new exciting ideas and products and then let other countries steal the production side. American industry has a hard time competing with companies in other countries that are subsidized by their governments. (they do not have to pay health care benefits for their employees and have generous tax breaks. And in some cases such as airbus they are actually subsidized by their governments.)
And in almost every case such as this the foreign worker's wage is peanuts compared to the U.S. And yet....somehow we trudge on in the name of a free global economy. There is no way in most cases we can compete with these kinds of cut rate costs. Even in tech as I said we export jobs once it is clear we no longer need the expertise American workers can provide. I don't know where this ends but one day we will not be manufacturing anything in this once great industrial giant....the US of A.
Actually we've already seen what happens to the countries that pirate away our manufacturing jobs. Japan had them, lost many to Korea and Thailand. Now it's China where the majority of manufacturing occurs. Why, because as the standards of living increase in these other countries they become less competitive in the world market. At some point automation may take the labor cost problem out of the equation but it won't be any better news to the workers.