Nathan Moore's Thoughts
Congress Must Act - Pass It Today
Due to legal obligations, and a general mushiness of the mind over the last couple of days, I’ve kept myself away from any sort of commentary, thoughtful or otherwise.
That disclaimer of sorts being said, I must express my disappointment in both parties in the House, and their seeming inability to recognize the current financial crisis for what it actually is, the economic equivalent of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The government “bailout” (a financially attuned friend of mine got onto me for using the word like the media does - loosely) is nothing of the sort. We have a collection of leaders (another term I use loosely) who cannot adequately explain what the problem actually is we are addressing.
What this spending bill will ultimately do is preclude a rash of foreclosures. The government will be able to negotiate with homeowners and amend the terms of their mortgages to keep them in their own homes. The crisis began on Main Street, was exacerbated by Wall Street, but ultimately will most affect Main Street. This not a fat cat bailout. Nor is it a negotiable position where ideology reigns supreme and pure. The situation calls for pragmatic governance that will prevent the evaporation of trillions of dollars of wealth and layoffs as far as the eye can see. Ideological posturing and silly little add-ons (like extending unemployment benefits) ought to be flushed. The economy cannot grow when credit is unattainable, and Americans cannot be secure if their primary asset, their home, loses its value overnight. Without credit, business growth stops, and banks begin to fail, the individual deposits for which the federal government is responsible. Wachovia just sold out to CItibank at a bargain price. National City is not far behind.
The only person who should be found on the record voting against the bill is Jeannette Rankin. Last I heard, her seat is currently held by someone else. Pelosi is counting votes, trying to avoid responsibility, and Boehner is not whipping his caucus, avoiding responsibility. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have an excuse.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Sarbanes-Oxley was one of the components of the last rush to judgement. Now you are looking at the shambles resulting from the required mark to market S-O requires. And they even debated S-O for a while.
We have no idea how many gotchas are hidden in this 450 page bill.
The experts predicted complete meltdown if the 3-page coronation of Hank Paulsen was not approved. It didn’t happen and won’t happen if the pols step back and think about this some more.
I would rather get it right up front rather than trying to fix it later.
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 am
I think this is more for Wall St.
There is a program already in force that was passed this summer for $300 BILLION to take the pressure off forclosures. Article in the Washington Post tells about it.
The Gov. has never done anything FAST that I remember working out for the good of the citizens, can’t remember many things done slow that seemed to be in the citizens best interest, over the politians interest, either.
How much mortgage help is enough? Is there no personal responsibility left?
Is this economy problem, that many say is worldwide, going to be the reason someone uses too call for a world currency, or a new world economy council for control of the world economy, so indiviual countries cannot mess it up? Where are we going with this? Look at the reponse of the Russian stock market, it lost 50% of it’s value the other day, per the news info. It’s all connected in someway, one country can’t start a war without wrecking their own economy.
Everyone cries at the loss of 700 points on the stock market, not many mention that it came up 500 the next day. I’ve seen the market lose 200 pts. over a 2 day period before, no “sky is falling” then.
Giving a mortgage to someone without the ability to repay is simply bad politics and bad business, just like giving a driver’s lic. to a 3 year old is stupid.
If we survived the Carter years of 16-18% interest, hours at the gas station, with prices higher than today, indexed to inflation, we will probably survive this one to.
The auto industry should have re-tooled decades ago, now the taxpayer pays for that. There is probably no end as long as the politians know that thsy can simply buy votes by throwing money at them, and we simply let them do it. Hard to figure how we even got this far, isn’t it.
Just don’t force me to cancel cable, or my Starbucks stop in the morning, the Gov just has to subsidize that for me, those must be some kind of “unalienable right” or something.