Spitting in the Wind

[dgriffin]

Fed Risks ‘Spitting in the Wind’ With New $800 Billion Pledge


www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=ag3TJyGD73qk&refer=home


"Policy makers aim to kick-start markets for loans to students, car buyers, credit-card borrowers and small businesses with a new $200 billion program. Backed in part by the Treasury, the Fed will become a new buyer in the market for consumer loans at a time when many traditional holders of the assets, such as off-balance sheet bank units, have collapsed or been dissolved."

"The announcement of the new efforts yesterday came amid rising criticism that officials were excessively focused on saving Wall Street firms, with the Citigroup Inc. rescue Nov. 23 the latest example. President-elect Barack Obama said repeatedly in the past two days he’ll compose a plan to help “Main Street” as well as the financial industry. "

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So, let me get this straight. The Feds give money to the banks to kickstart the economy. But with a recession looming, the banks don't want to lend it out for fear of loans defaulting. So the government will find ways around the banks to get money to consumers, in the hope that they'll use it to kick start the economy. While the banks do what? Nice to hear we have money to do that.
Sounds socialist to me. Why don't we just get this over with and copy the way the Red Chinese do it?

[dgriffin]

Circular Firing Squad: the Republican Suicide Watch


by John Batchelor The only intelligent talk show host in the world. Although I don't always agree with him.

"Two months later, the money verdict is that Paulson did in truth lie like a Goldman pirate, that TARP has been tricked up so many times it is a Norma Desmond of a five-year plan for the penurious proletariat, and the only character in Washington with less credibility than the treasury secretary is the Chris Dodd hand-puppet Ben Bernanke. The market cap of the big nine banks that Paulson and Bernanke claimed they would save is cut in half, and now Detroit wants to be a bank so the automakers can die as wards of the state. In fact, the only banks that are not dying are those few who refused Paulson’s monopoly money. The TARP is the monster that has drained the blood of capitalism, scared away investment like Dracula’s castle, and ended the ability of the marketplace to clean out the poison of Freddie, Fannie, AIG, and California.


johnbatchelorshow.com/dispatches/2008/11/the-last-days-of-the-republicans-part-3-tdb/