Galbraith's got it

[Gutenberg]

Don't bail them out. Now that the investment banks have all shuttered or been taken over by commercial banks, it's not necessary. Take the money the government was going to spend on the bailout and spend it on the nation:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...inionsbox1

[mikeylikesit]

John Kenneth Galbraith? Didn't he give up the ghost and die shortly after seeing Bush reelected?
some of his quotes:

•"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled."

•"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

•“Trickle-down theory - the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”

•"It is a well known and very important fact that America's founding fathers did not like taxation without representation. It is a lesser known and equally important fact that they did not much like taxation with representation."

•"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

[Gutenberg]

James K., his son.

[robfilms]

g-man-

interesting post.

though there clearly is financial pain involved with this credit crisis, i find this bush presidency can only sell fear not ideals and/or ideas.

the selling of the 3 page $700 billion bailout feels so much like the rush to war in iraq. we have to do something, so we'll do...this...or that...no, this.

the crisis stemmed in many ways from over 20+ years of flawed thinking about financial deregulation. and now the thought is to make a "fix" in a weekend or a week.

previous treasury secretary o'neil has been talking about setting up a similar idea of backing the debt as the fdic backs depositors $100k. why hand out money when if u can backstop the risk, the credit will flow.

again, thanks for the post.

be well

rob

[Wags]

Thanks for that. Seems like straight forward and good ideas. At the very least its speaks to the need of looking at this calmly and thoughtfully instead of rushing to a rash decision in a panic.

[anonymouse1]

Very interesting stuff.