JohnAl

Major Banks Now Much Too Big to Fail

The question for investors is "what now?"

This should be unwound, but there seems to be little sentiment for that - at least not right now - and it would also be exceedingly difficult to do. So this seems unlikely to happen any time soon.

The current consensus is for additional government regulation and oversight. If we're lucky, the government will mismanage this to the point of regulating the too bigs out of existence, or at least to the extent that less regulated competitors can gain a foothold and in time can drive them out of business. But that's if we're lucky. More likely that the too bigs will plod along, hampered by the regulation but holding on, always complaining about over regulation while the government regulatory bureaucracies continue to expand.

A third alternative is status quo. Essentially, economic rule by the too big oligarchy. Economic fascism, where the too bigs enjoy private profits and losses continue to be socialized.

What's Good for Citi - And What's Good for America

D_Virginia, the free market screwed up?

That's ridiculous. We don't have a free market, haven't had one for decades (centuries?) We have a centrally planned monetary system, a fractional reserve banking system that wouldn't exist were it not for government backed FDIC insurance, regulation out the wazoo, and GSEs loaning and backing billions of dollars worth of mortgages to people who wouldn't get the time of day from a free market lender.

You and others who blame this mess on the free market are exactly 180 degrees wrong.

What we are experiencing is the failure of government interventions into the free market.

Nationalizing Bank Losses

Here's a plan. Let 'em fail. Let 'em fail now!

Putting this crap on the taxpayer's back is the easy way out - the cowardly way out. Do you realize that a new child born in this country comes into life already in debt over 181K? (60T debt / 330 M citizens) Enough is effin' enough!

Let 'em fail. Let every holder of this crap take the pain, including ma and pa and their pension funds. They deserve to take the pain - they didn't pay attention to where their money was going and they voted for the politicians who allowed the centrally planned fiat monetary system that caused this mess to continue to exist. It's time to start acting like grownups. It's time to accept responsibility and stop pushing it all off on somebody else.

I'm sure I'll be hurt. I don't even know how. But I don't care. It's time to stop this madness. The sooner we get to the bottom of this mess the sooner we start recovering.

(Hon, where's your blood pressure medicine?)

Turning Japanese: The Audacity of Reality (Part 3 of 3)

Another excellent article Mr. Quinn.

Regarding the politicians wanting to "help". It seems the Dems think the solution is to spend, and charge it. The GOP solution is to cut taxes, and charge it.

Being a taxpayer I slightly prefer the latter to the former, but better still is a third solution. Cut taxes AND spending.

Imagine what a BIG tax cut would do for everybody's psychology, IF spending were cut an equal amount so people knew that the tax cut was REAL and not simply based on a scheme to put off paying for it.

What Do We Need In 2009? More Failure

Many are saying that 2008 marked the failure of capitalism. They're right. Capitalism did fail. The government pretty much finished smothering it to death.