Thursday, October 02, 2008

And in today's economic news...

Part of the problem is that banks aren't lending because they're in a liquidity trap, having to hang on to their cash in order to cover losses from the housing meltdown in order to keep their reserves above the point where the FDIC swoops in and takes them over. Thus the part of the bailout legislation that temporarily lowers reserve requirements to 0%. Without access to cheap loans, people aren't buying cars, or homes, or much of anything that's a big ticket item. The other part of the problem is that over 700,000 Americans have lost their jobs over the last calendar year and they simply can't afford to buy anything...

Can we all agree, now, that something's bad wrong? I'm with Paul Krugman, who, I might add, has been right about pretty much, well, everything these past eight years. The bailout bill currently in Congress is ugly, nasty, and not the best that could be done, but the economy is on fire and adults need to do something and this is something. The national conversation sounds like some kind of pathetic encounter group, "well I am angry about this, well I am angry about that, well you did this to me, well you did that to me," yada yada yada. Grow up people. We need action. You don’t have time for all this blaming and ideological one-upmanship.

-- Badtux the Economy Penguin

5 comments:

  1. Actually, we need 'right' action.. The Patriot Act, 6 years of insanity & the present 'economic problem' show what this administration will do. What we need to do is what GB is doing.. as if.. Or wait. A new administration should have the right to fix this, not deal with further damage caused by Cheney & Co.

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  2. Well, GW is going to be gone in four months. But the liquidity problem is *now*, not four months from now. The current bill is nowhere near perfect, but it isn't a Patriot Act either. And if we're going to wait for perfect, well. I don't think the American political system is capable of "perfect" anymore. Lightly tossed turd is pretty much the best we can get out of it :-(.

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  3. I'm doing just fine, and will continue to do so, if others are not, well, that is their problem because they are stupid monkeys.

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  4. Remember the two rules of plumbing??
    Shit flows down hill & payday's on Friday (for those not in the know).. Well, one of them applies to one group of Americans & the other applies to another group.. You get to guess which is which..

    You get Lightly tossed turd?.. Damn, Ain't you the lucky one!!

    BTW, this 'mother of all bail outs' (to be followed by the sons^nth of all bail outs) ain't gonna fix that little ole 'liquidity problem' We would be (moot point now) better off struggling for the four months.. no chance of Congress getting off it's collective asses & impeaching the MoFo..

    Oh well, sucks to be poor in america..

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