Paul Killinger

It's the Politicians, Not the Public

Boy, are you right. And there's no way to fix it short of imposing term limits on Congress. And that's not about to happen, since they'd have to vote to impose them on hemselves. Gingrich and his buddies missed the only realistic opportunity to do this that we ever had.

How Bailouts Are Messing with Capitalism

Thank you for taking the time to write perhaps the BEST ARTICLE I've ever read on Seeking Alpha. You explain "Creative Destruction" and the absolute necessity for it if our nation is to maintain its economic competitiveness in terms everyone can understand.

OF COURSE those of us working for uncompetitive companies in dying industries don't want to hear it. But if our children are going to have any sort of viable future, listen we must.

Why the Government Should Stop All the Bailout Secrecy

Don't worry, Rick, it's coming. If the government expects anyone to invest in all this "challenged" debt, they're going to have to disclose the bad news line by line. Look out below!

The Bonus Tax: The Redistribution of Both Wealth And Talent

Hopefully, should any of this reactionary legislation actually become law, the Supremes will nip this nonsense in the bud. If not, it will enable the Obamanistas to begin their pursuit of the rest of us. Anyway, we can always hope we're pretty far down on their lists.

The AIG Bonuses: A Welcome Scandal

And speaking of which, two of the latest government misadventures into our economy are energy and health care. Can you imagine what they'll look like when they're finished?

They're already well on their way to nationalizing energy. It is instructive to note that when ANY country in the world (other than the U.S.) finds an oil well they throw big parties. We, on the other hand, don't even allow our energy companies to look for it, much less produce it to cut our oil imports.

It seems the longer we go on, the less we learn about the fallacy of allowing our government to intervene in our markets. But we're getting a BIG lesson this time! Hopefully, some day we'll recover.

The AIG Bonuses: A Welcome Scandal

Robert,

I gave your comment a "+" because I believe you're on the right track. But we need to look beyond the headlines and the tom-foolery going on in Congress to get the whole picture.

AIG's payments to foreign banks was part of their contractual obligations into the fated world of CDO's and CDS's. They weren't gifts of any sort, but contracted debt repayments. The worst thing we could do was abrogate these contracts, it would have brought the entire financial industry crashing down all over the globe.

The problem was the nature of the debts themselves. They were developed by so-called "financial engineers" on Wall Street and elsewhere. (Many of these folks were classmates of Obama's at Harvard, incidentally.) Even Alan Greenspan didn't understand the danger. (But Warren Buffett did, he called them the financial instruments of "potential mass destruction.")

So no one caught onto this in Washington until it was too late. They were living just like us-- fat, dumb and happy. Hopefully, we'll know better next time.

The AIG Bonuses: A Welcome Scandal

In case you think I'm just crying here and complaining to no avail, there is a solution to this problem. It's called TERM LIMITS.

Meanwhile, let's celebrate the few brave souls in Congress who just vote "NO!" every time the government decides to dig deeper into our pockets or take over yet another aspect of our daily lives where they don't belong.

This week our president had the gall to compare his befuddled treasury secretary to our nation's first such office holder, Alexander Hamilton. Then president George Washington would have died laughing if he'd have heard that one.

But that's what it's come to, my friends.

The AIG Bonuses: A Welcome Scandal

I believe it's positive that we're beginning to look beyond the rhetorical nonsense and actually examining the negative effect the Congress is having on our nation's financial industry. What made us think the same outfit that can't run the post office could ever manage Wall Street in the first place?

Much was made about the private jets that Detroit auto executives flew to Washington for the auto bailout hearings. Well, how do you suppose our Governors and Congressional leaders get around? On scheduled flights? I doubt it.

The point is our political class is the problem here, and not the solution to our dilemma. They set themselves up as EXPERTS on every subject imaginable, but the outcomes of their daily interference in our lives show them to be nothing but BUMBLERS of the first order instead.

In the end they like nothing more than to stumble onto controversies like this one, so they can point their fingers at everyone else (instead of at themselves, where they belong) and show themselves riding to our "rescue." Not until we figure this out do we have any chance of recovering our lives and private enterprise.

The truth is that Reagan was right, and we've lost our way. God help us!

AIG: Geithner's Outraged? He Should Be Embarrassed

It is becoming obvious to everyone that Geithner's a lightweight, which was painfully evident during his inaugural testimony before Congress. What to do about that is a more difficult question. So far the answer seems to be trotting out his superiors (including the president himself) to explain our predicament as the administration struggles to develop
answers to the predicament we're in. Let's hope they find some.

AIG: Geithner's Outraged? He Should Be Embarrassed

I'd say all you guys have this one pinned down exactly right!

Finally, Some Disclosure from Companies That Received Bailout Funds

Funny how when corporate execs visit DC they're held up to ridicule by the Congress and the press, but when the GOVERNORS meet Obama in Philly (I think it was) to beg for bucks, no one said a THING about THEIR mode of transport.

Maybe Arnold drove one of his classic cars from CA, and Sarah arrived by dogsled. Not to mention Speaker Nancy's private luxury jet that WE'RE picking up the tab for.

If our elected elite were so smart, how come something like 40 of our 50 states, much less the feds, can't balance their budgets? Last I checked, they're in the same bailout line as Detroit and the Wizards of Wall Street.

My own view is college degrees aren't all they're cracked up to be anymore. I suspect most politicians are lawyers or political science graduates, and our esteemed scribes hold degrees in journalism. The guys from Wall Street hold MBA's, mostly from Ivy League schools (as are both our incoming and outgoing Presidents).

Right now, they ALL deserve a grad of F, so far as I'm concerned. The Wall Streeters for melting down the WORLD'S financial system, the Congress for letting them do it, and the press for failing to tell us about it.

Why Bailouts Are Not the Answer

Let's assume for the moment that the Treasury and the Fed really HAD to spend (invest?) a trillon dollars to keep the world's banking system afloat. That makes sense but, of course, it's potentially inflationary down the line. (And it's only fair, as we were the ones who sold everyone all that bum housing paper in the first place - leveraged 30+X.

But now the Congress and its free spending majorities feel compelled to get in on the fun. Acting like they have some sort of mandate and a green light from the new Administration and the Fed, they are cooking up an ADDITIONAL trillion dollar stimulus pacakge for a start. (As a reward to their voters perhaps?)

But it doesn't really matter why they're doing it, because in the end they will only once again only prove we can't SPEND oursleves rich! It makes one wonder what it is about Economics 101 they can't comprehend.

(Like I said, I'm not a gold bug. But BUY GOLD, it's the only way out.)

Why Bailouts Are Not the Answer

I was never a gold bug. In fact, I pooh-poohed them. But as the author points out, the word "trillions" has replaced "billions" in the lexicon of lawmakers' deficits.

This can ONLY result in the price of gold going through the roof over time. Indeed, it's increasingly likely the feds will outlaw its ownership again one day. Good luck to them.

Why Bailouts Are Not the Answer

The lone bright spot in all this is it's no longer illegal for Americans to own gold. It's time to stock up, I'd venture to say.

A Credit Default Swap Primer

If you think I'm warped or kidding, let's follow the $700 billion bailout, or what portion the Treasury actually ends up having to monetize. Assuming they get some back, you don't really believe lawmakers have any intention of ever retiring any of this debt, do you?

Of course not. They're going to SPEND IT. And that's exactly why they want so desperately to approve it in the first place. They've already run through the TRILLIONS they call the Social Security "trust funds" (Right!), and they're vigilently on the hunt for fresh money.