Hurry! Hurry!
Bush and Paulson say congress needs to rush and give them a blank check — no time to think about it, change anything, or scrutinize anything.
It seems strange to me that they didn’t bolster their rhetoric by providing congressional leaders with a list of all the times congress and the American people decided to swallow their skepticism and give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt, and then everything worked out fine. It’s a really long list, so spelling it out in detail would surely convince a lot of people. Like remember when some folks said Bush’s math was wrong and his tax cuts would lead to large deficits? Idiots! Or those who warned that occupying Iraq might be kind of hard? Morons! If you can’t trust George W. Bush with an unlimited grant of authority then who can you trust?
49 Responses to “Hurry! Hurry!”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
September 21st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I heard that Judge Michael Mukasey had such a stellar record that he would totally bring law & order back to the Bush Jr. administration Department of Justice. How’s that working out?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:48 pm
The Bush Administration is manufacturing a sense of crisis (sound familiar) in order to ram through their version of Big Shitpile relief for a very simple reason: they understand that if there is a reasoned debate their autocratic solution aggregating unfetter power in the Executive will not prevail. Their ploy is to create a sense of impending catastrophe in the hopes that Congress feels they have not choice but to pass the legislation lest they be stuck with the political blowback from further financial melt down.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Why can’t the Democrats signal the market that they intend to bring liquidity to the market along the lines that Paulson intimates he will; buying financial instruments at fair market prices? But also signal the market that they must do it in a careful, deliberative manner and that it will take longer than a week to put all the piece in place. I have to think that the market would respond favorably to such a signal and it would give the Democrats time to put a better bill in place. It will also allow time for the overwhelming political sentiment for a more equitable plan with real oversight and accountability to express itself and force the Republicans to either support a better bill or pay a political price. The Republicans are trying to force a decision without time for the normal political voices to be heard. But Congress and the public should not be stampeded into a precipitous decision that they soon regret.
September 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm
paulson has apparently conceptualized this as a private equity fund, and investors get no chance to ask questions in private equity funds, do they?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
howard, in this case, a domestic sovereign investment fund!
September 21st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
As Glen Greenwald recently opined, “we’ve seen this game before”
September 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
All we need to make the scene perfect is to bundle the $700,000,000,000 onto pallets, load them onto some C-130’s, and fly them into New York.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Ask yourself these questions.
How many factories are there on Wall Street?
How much food to they produce on Wall Street?
How much oil do they drill/produce on Wall Street?
Then ask yourself, what exactly does Wall Street do that deserves a trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Did anyone see the episode of the Office where Dwight buys an SUV from Andy? I think Bush’s negotiating tactics are very similar.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
President Bush, sounding eerily familiar in this morning’s Washington Post:
September 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I am sixty years old. I have seen a lot of bullshit come and go and yet there I was Friday explaining to a friend why it was absolutely imperative that we do as Paulson says. Saturday I woke up and read some blogs and caught myself and said….now waaiiitttt a minute……aren’t these the guys who always have to have what they want and if they don’t get it immediately the world will come to an end? I remembered the mushroom cloud reason for invading Iraq. And then the plan came out with no money to do anything at all for real people…I mean if we’re going in the hole for 700 billion why not add forty or fifty billion and take care of health care, save some actual home owners from losing their homes, fix some roads and bridges…stuff like that. But noooooooo we can’t do any of that, might spoil the common folk, make them think it was their money or something.
So I called my friend back and said, “you know I got sucked in again”, he said “Yup”….and I said “fuck them, if we don’t get any of the gravy let everyone eat the macaroni dry.”
September 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Singe: “why not add forty or fifty billion and take care of health care, save some actual home owners from losing their homes, fix some roads and bridges…”
Here’s a far more likely scenario, starting with the following declaration from the next administration and Congress: “As much as we desperately want to maintain Social Security and Medicare at current levels, we simply can’t afford it any more. Sorry about that.”
September 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Krugman thought a disaster was narrowly averted and is thankful that Paulson did it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKMy8pf9qY8
Krugman was not on board for other Bush initiatives, but here, in his area of expertise he says he was panicked until the bailout was announced, and now he says that there is hope that there will be a slow orderly decline in the economy over the next year or two.
I’d like to see these measures enacted only for six month or some set period over which time congress can put together a real response without gun-to-the-head pressure.
Krugman has me convinced that Paulson felt gun-to-the-head pressure. The correct thing to do in that situtation is just survive until there is no gun to your head and make as few commitments as possible consistent with survival until there is no gun.
I think this goes beyond that, but as long as it does that, my feeling is that the mistakes inherent in rushing something like this are reasonably reversible if there is political will.
The problem is that congress is generally not daily-kos style liberals, probably even less than the general population and much less than the general well-educated population.
The Democratic party is full of Pelosi-type quasi conservatives – and it’s looking like Obama is one of them – and getting a Democratic party that represents 21st century liberalism is going to be a major project to be spearheaded by the left-wing echo chamber.
The right wing though, has whipped the Republican party into shape so the left is at a structural disadvantage, even with Democrats in office, I’m guessing for ten or so years until the left ends up winning the fight over the Democratic party.
Until that time, I have very low expectations of the US political system. It is structural broken from my point of view and is guaranteed to handle what I’m convinced is a real emergency in a way consistent with the wildest ideals of the US right wing.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Hmm – Bush says pass it now.
Congress should say “Honor our subpoenas now, or how can we trust you.”
Or quit vetoing our SCHIP stuff. Or whatever.
On the other hand, Congress could just admit they are useless, and just go home.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
My question is: Where is the Democratic Proposal? Not the add-ons to the Bush Plan but an altogether different “thing.” I see all of the economists that don’t like this “plan.” Why the hell doesn’t Obama and company put one together and tell Bush and Republicans to accept it or the world will end? It’s called negotiation. Proactive always works better than reactive.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
it’s line in the sand time… we need to be screaming bloody murder over this, not that it’s going to do any good, but we sure as hell can’t sit here on our hands while what’s left of our republic gets handed to the super-rich criminals on a silver platter… i’ve already written my senators, reid and ensign, and told them, in no uncertain terms, that i expect them to do nothing less than throw their wretched bodies across the tracks to keep this from passing… we should have thrown these crooks out of office years go, but, without a doubt, this is the endgame…
And, yes, I DO take it personally
September 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Shorter Bush: “It’s Shawkin’ Awesome! Where’s the check, bitches?”
Shorter Naomi Klein: “Do you morans even read?”
Shorter MSM: “McCain’s a mavrick!”
Shorter America: “The lib bloggers will likely save us $700 Bil, and since we don’t even know it, we’ll call them DFHs and ask Bush admin hacks for advice on just how to get out of the very mess they just put us in!”
September 21st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
…Like transpose Congressional Majority Leaders every place it states Secretary of the Treasury.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Distribution idea
September 21st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Rune, I am trying to believe that there is some point beyond which the American people won’t give in. Of course i have been waiting since Nixon.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Arnold Evans: Krugman was not on board for other Bush initiatives, but here, in his area of expertise he says he was panicked until the bailout was announced, and now he says that there is hope that there will be a slow orderly decline in the economy over the next year or two.
Krugman has changed his mind since Friday and has taken another point of view on the plan, which is: IT SUCKS.
It would be great to have a plan that actually saves the financial system of the United States from total destruction. This isn’t that plan.
max
['Why rent when you can buy???']
September 21st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
You know, it’s almost like it doesn’t occur to Congressional Democrats that they themselves have the authority — you know, being Congress and all — to pass whatever rescue plan they see fit.
They don’t need Paulson’s plan or his approval or anyone else’s.
At one time, you know, being Congress meant something.
But I guess now the style is just to throw up your hands and say, ‘Hey, but this Treasury Secretary dude that got every single thing wrong up ’til now says we just got to give him nearly a trillion dollars or we all die, so, like, what choice does little old Congress have?’
September 21st, 2008 at 7:15 pm
cid, it’s like this isn’t the real congress, this is just a bunch of bozos holding the seats until the real congress shows up and the movie starts….the real congress must be up front getting popcorn and bon bons…
September 21st, 2008 at 7:34 pm
More asinine schoolyard twaddle from Matthew.
He used to be OK, a few years ago. Now he just doesn’t try any more. Either he’s burnt out or he’s somehow got a reverse-aging thing going on.
September 21st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Privatize Profits—Nationalize Losses…it says it all about this 9/11 of the financial world!
September 21st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
What’s really going to kill me is watching the Democratic Congress, in 2009, suddenly find it easy to say no to President Obama on all sorts of things.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I don’t get it.
If the bad debt is a bunch of bad home mortgages why don’t they help people stay in their homes by refinancing their bad mortgages into manageable mortgages. This will have the same effect as buying the bad debt, but also help millions of Americans keep their homes (And yes some investors will keep their second and third homes. Which is not that bad for home values.)
What does the fed intend to do with all of the these bad notes? Sell them back to Wall street for less than they paid for them? Buy high and sell low, always smart financial advise.
In his presser Paulson said he intended to address the root cause of the crisis, but according to my watch he is doing no such thing. He is addressing the repackaged assets of the root cause.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Has anyone noticed that if the package that Bush has proposed were passed without changes then immediately thereafter Paulson could have a check written against the U.S. Treasury made payable to George W. Bush for $700,000,000,000.00, and there would be nothing that any court could do about it due to the no-court-challenge clause in the package?
When a right-wing radical proposes that money be taken from the public and given to corporations for stated purpose X, stated purpose X actually has nothing to with his/her motivation. The fact that money is being taken from the public and given to corporations is itself the motivation.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:36 pm
There are WMDs on Wall Street!!! We must act quickly and invade with our armies of dollars before the smoking balance sheet turns out to be a mushroom casserole (or something like that).
September 21st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Maybe Hank Paulson could use the $700 billion to build the biggest, bestest Texas Rangers stadium EVAR.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm
That, my friends, is wit we can believe in.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
They can signal all they like, but the market only listens to people with spines. The only question is whether this gets passed first thing on Monday or snuck into the news cycle late on Friday.
Everybody wave good-bye to health care reform, lower taxes for the middle class, and any program meant for the lower 99% of the population, because with this bailout we can’t afford them anymore. Still lots of cash for the captains of industry though, and war spending isn’t a budget item anymore so we’re all set there too. The next four years look so bright (no matter who wins in November) that I would shoot myself… if I hadn’t had to sell my gun to make rent.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:38 pm
The actual assets behind these debt obligations are outside of Baghdad, to the North, South, East and West somewhat.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Rick: Yeah, they’ll tell us that the new reason we can’t afford anything nice for the U.S. population is the recent $700 Billion handout, until this hasty money-throwing idea pans out and they come back for the next $1 trillion.
‘Yeah, um, we’re real sorry we can’t afford to give you health care, and we’re real opposed to socialized health care, but if you don’t give us another trillion dollars to save what you just gave us $700 billion for, we’re all gonna die by nightfall, hee hee hee.’
September 21st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
First thing tomorrow call your congress critters and tell them no no no no. Tell them you don’t trust Bush, why the rush? Paulson said the fundamentals were strong and no bail out on Monday, on Friday we need a trillion of all hell will break loose. What changed? Call them, tell them No. Be polite but firm and be quick so someone esle can get through.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
See, now, if my original plans back in 1993 had worked out, i.e., I hadn’t spent eight years in the joint, OR gotten killed actually implementing those plans, all of these bastards would be dead and you wouldn’t be in this situation (probably – although you’d be thinking 9/11 was a respite from ME).
I’m just sitting back and chortlin’ – especially since I read today that IT folks are still employed and making more money this year than other folks screwed by all this. And I’m independent, and my clients (one of them anyway) aren’t that tied to any of this. And I rent – cheap.
Meanwhile, all you “American Dream” homeowners with wives and two-point-five kids and two-point-five cars and a snowmobile or a boat or a camper are FUCKED!
Excuse me, I have to go buy a new computer and lay plans for a new laptop in a couple months.
And we’re still gonna have a new war here very shortly, either with Iran or Pakistan (or both). Can’t wait until you start bitchin’ about that, too, after cussing me out for two years for predicting it…
What Have We Got to Lose?
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=13482
Make Stuff Up, Bomb Iran
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/21/make-stuff-up-bomb-iran/
How about George Bush? How about John McCain? How about Barack Obama? THEY ALL BELIEVE THE SAME THING ABOUT IRAN! And one of the last two is going to be the NEXT President!
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:47 am
SB: I had almost exactly the same thought, about Paulson’s proposed ability to do whatever he pleases with the $700B, but I imagined him signing it all over to the RNC “to ensure that a Republican majority can pass the legislation we need to protect Wall Street from overregulation as the result of a few bad apples,” or something like that. *shudder*
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 am
How could anyone even consider giving 700 billion to the Bush criminal gang.They are criminals, and you don`t give more money to criminals after they`ve ripped you off for 8 years,and they tell you they`re not sure if tit will work,butif we get the 7000 billion we might get it to work–us,the same guys who broke it,the same greedy thugs.
I wouldn`t trust these men for a secret plan toget me a bowl of ice cream
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 am
Yeah, this is probably wishful thinking, but I’d *love* to see Obama draft legit liberal legislation in response to this. The Obama Plan, you could call it. It’d show leadership, give a good, solid, liberal response to the economic crisis rather than swallowing the shitty Bush Administration proposal, *and* it would have the benefit of shutting up the people that complain about Obama not authoring legislation.
The downside? It fails to help the economic crisis. It probably wouldn’t take effect until he took office, so it probably would only help him win in November, but there would be a very real chance that it could hinder or kill his chances for re-elect in 2012 if it bombs in practice. Still, put together a good plan which has the support of a broad range of economists and maybe that fear is unwarranted.
Either way, it would be extremely bold.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Note to Congress:
No, don’t do it! Don’t bail out the Fat Cats! We do not want you to spend lots of our money to enable other rich people to take more risks. We will never forgive you for signing on to Bush’s plan to save the wealthy.
1. Solve the credit crunch problem by increasing the money supply as necessary to allow credit to flow. This is what the Fed does each day, is to regulate the money supply for this purpose. If any increase to inflation may result, it will be less than what would be caused by raising the national debt as required for the proposed bailout.
2. Solve the bad securities problem by making them good – at the roots. Stop all foreclosure processes of primary residences (not real estate speculators) immediately, and even retroactively, nationwide. Allow at risk homeowners to accept an ownership plan that includes the Fed at low interest, who can be paid off according to a formulized plan.
This solution will give good values to the securities by both stopping defaults and stabilizing property values. This will end the heartbreak and social disruption caused by our housing crisis (These things have direct and indirect economic costs as well, Republicans), and it will require far less money than Bush’s $700 Billion proposal that ignores the regular people.
Bush’s plan bails out the wealthy speculators, yet it leaves the descendants of each and every taxpayer with a $7000 bill with compounding interest. This expenditure does not even solve the problem, it only enables more gambling. That money belongs to our children, not the selfish speculators. This enormous bailout is not acceptable!
Free market advocates have always said that the Fed should never step in to help out homeowners from losing their homes, because this would be an unwarranted interference with existing contracts that would disrupt the natural market forces. Yet these same natural-force objections don’t apply to Bear Stearns, AIG, and now all the rest of the already-too-wealthy who are taking big risks on the securities markets? The blatant hypocrisy is sickening. The rationalization may be that this is a “sudden unprecedented crisis”, even though anyone paying attention saw it coming years ago? No, securities traders, We the People are not willing to cover your losses.
Please, all Democratic leaders: Don’t double down on Bush’s big bad bet! Solve the original problem at the roots and you solve the immediate crisis at the same time.
Thank you.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
-
The Devil herself, mayhaps??
October 18th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
December 4th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Those who thought Taylor Swift was a big deal after the release of her first record should be prepared: The country singer is about to get way bigger. Though they’re written by a teenager, Swift’s songs have broad appeal, and therein
January 13th, 2009 at 10:12 am
laptop battery
laptop batteries
February 8th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
laptop battery
March 11th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Incredible site!
March 17th, 2009 at 3:13 am
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people agree with your blog.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:27 am
It is the coolest site,keep so!
buy cheap viagra
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:18 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
cheap brand pfizer viagra
April 16th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed