puddytat

The Race to Zero Interest Rates

Both previous posters are very correct. Lower interest rates are essentially evil. They do prop up your economy as Schiller and Schiff say vehemently. There is no real reason for low interest rates other than giving a sugar rush. People.... the US is at a second level of insolvency
Look at your GDP to debt ratio chart... If that doesn't scare the crap out of the US I just don't know what does. Yes... help the home owners because they pay taxes and drive the economy.... DO NOT push down rates in the hope this will stimulate people to get into MORE DEBT.
You have no more cash. You are insolvent. Stop spending money you don't have. What is the point of having cheap money if the price of the products... ie houses... are still astronomically high..
STOP SPENDING MONEY YOU DON"T GOT.

With 75bp Cut, Fed Becomes the Most Aggressive Central Bank

This sounds like you are proud of this.. Lowest ...most agrressive.. Most insane indeed. Curbs-in has it right on the nose. All Bernanke is doing is doing the opposite of what was done during the great depression as if the opposite is in fact the correct answer. How simple is that... Paulson even admits there is no play book for this kind of scenario.....so lets leave it to the brain trust at the helm... you know the guy that Letterman makes fun of every night.... the guy who capsized every business he was put in charge of . What's his take... well ... print some money mabell.
This does smack of desperation.

Canada Takes Rates to 50 Year Low

Funny thing is that the prime rate dropped 75 BP but the banks pocketed 25 BP for themselves and dropped some lending rates by only 50 BP.
For my money all this lowering of interest rates does is promote more borrowing and more debt. What the world needs.. ESPECIALLY THE USA ... is alot less debt and living within your means. If growth is the sole goal of monetary policy at any cost than we should get alot more Greenspans into the policy making positions. Oh wait... wasn't he the bone head who got us into this mess in the first place.... wasn't he the one who was knighted by the Queen for all he did for the English private bankers. IE the Fed.
Just because higher interest rates were introduced in the Great Depression doesn't mean that lower interest rates will solve the problem especially since there were no derivatives in the dirty 30s. The world has a humongous problem and piling more debt on debt is not solution.

Dollar Rally Should Continue As Recession Reality Sets In

Love it... Finally some bloggers who have got their heads screwed on straight. All of you are 100% bang on. US is in a death or should I write debt spiral with ever increasing amounts of debt per second. Your debt to gdp ratio is in the toilet BELOW what it was during the so called great depression. Dollar is not a safe haven whatsoever... perhaps a sucker rally.... GOLD ....good ... very good,.... US is at a second level insolvency where the cupboards are bare and now you are forced to sell the cupboards...Holiday season over.... carnage will begin...
Nice to see that there are some Americans with tons of smarts ... always what I regarded as a smart nation... Your Government... not so much.
Hey ours in no screaming hell either..
What do you folks recommend as far as gold... the bullion or the gold stocks or ETF??

FOMC Preview: How Far Will the Fed Go?

Doesn't really matter much IMO. Americans should still be concerned about mad man Paulson giving away money to his buddies. He is gone in less than two weeks. Talk about a thank you present or what. Are Americans just asleep or what. The trough lineup done on a weekend .
Just keep people's eyes averted .... This action by Paulson will go down in history as the single biggest swindle of the largest group of people in the world.
Bush has single handedly gutted the US and now is off on a lifetime vacation with a sweetheart pension and tons of cash to do what he wishes while his country, and the world, goes down the tubes.
Swindlers. Who cares about Bernanke.. If he goes below 1% then what
Free money. Oh forgot... he already is doing that

Why Friday Came Early

As a Canadian I am truly excited to see that on this blog so many Americans have it totally right. Capitalists don't need bailouts SO TRUE
How about other options? Why just ONE? An expensive one at that
SO TRUE. In a free market system there should be you live and die by the sword rules . NO BAILOUT You guys are truly right. Harmful to your kids and their kids and even their kids TRUE TRUE TRUE. This is a hastily crafted piece of garbage being shoved down the American's throats . Shouldn't this take months to draft?
Come on my dear friends in the State PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. If your government has 700 Billion burning a hole in its pocket then use it for something that will provide decades of stimulation, build roads, bridges, hospitals, schools for underpriviledged, computer schools ... put teachers and professionals back to work. That would create a new economy. THIS BAILOUT will only create debt for you and your children for decades. Your president has irretrievably failed you Americans and us, the rest of the world.
I am truly sickened to my stomach that my dear friends to the south must endure this .. Loss of jobs, 911, Katrina, GM and Ford and Chrysler declines, loss of houses, bankruptcy. Haven't you been through enough AND NOW you are handed a bill that your grandchildren may never be able to pay. This sickens me to the core people. Please march onto the Whitehouse and speak your disdain for this unholy solution.

Winners and Losers in the Bailout Bonanza

As a Canadian I am so incredibly encouraged by the comments here. I thought most Americans thought the Government you have actually know what they are doing. Sorry... they don't.. One week Paulson is saying no bailout... the next we get the mother of all bailouts... As if Americans have not been asked to go through enough... they lost houses, cars, jobs , no credit and after all that Paulson hands them a bill as well. Your politicians are indeed crooks. There should be a million people outside the Whitehouse today saying they should shove the bailout up you know whos you know what. Please don't take this lying down my American friends... you have been abused too much over the past 10 years to finally let your government do it to you too.
I have such a sickening feeling for my friends down in the States over this matter. As I pointed out in earlier posts. Spend the 700 billion on infrastructure... put people back to work... that would create prosperity for generations. This bailout will created debt for generations. This cannot be allowed to happen to the most amazing people on the earth.
I truly cannot see how this can be allowed to happen. A dark day in history.

Winners and Losers in the Bailout Bonanza

Big Losers THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Big Winners THE WEASELS WHO RUN WALL STREET.... If you had 700 billion, which you don't, why not spend it on infrastructure... build roads, bridges, hospitals, learning centers for poor families. That would create jobs , people pay taxes buy things and raise families.. All good stuff. Instead your plan creates a black hole for assets worth nothing.
Nice job... great leadership... so much for free market.

Bailouts: Misunderstanding the Moral Hazard

How about take your 700 billion dollars you don't really have and spend it on things that will really improve the economy. For example... build bridges roads hospitals schools or computer institutes where kids who are underpriviliedged can go and learn how to use a computer. Oh sorry that would just create jobs, prosperity, people paying taxes and buying homes and raising families .. Sorry that makes no sense whatsoever. We should just give it to the poor corporations who have already profited from their misdeeds and now need some extra bucks to get to their yachts. Sorry what was I thinking.

Profiting from the $700 Billion Bailout

Let me speak up here. If the US has 700 billion to boot around why not spend it on infrastructure, roads, bridges, hospitals , schools, universities etc. That would yield tens of thousands of jobs and have a solid foundation for generations to come. Conversely taking 700 billion and putting it into a black hole will put a debt and tax burden on the American people for generations to come. I am a Canadian and am outraged at the audacity of your president to suggest a bailout is the only way. NOT. Give the money back to the people... don't give them a giant bill they will never ever be able to repay. I just don't get your leaders today. Rob from the poor to give to the rich and tell us that is far to complicated for us to figure out and just trust us. You gotta be joking right??

Profiting from the $700 Billion Bailout

Let me speak up here. If the US has 700 billion to boot around why not spend it on infrastructure, roads, bridges, hospitals , schools, universities etc. That would yield tens of thousands of jobs and have a solid foundation for generations to come. Conversely taking 700 billion and putting it into a black hole will put a debt and tax burden on the American people for generations to come. I am a Canadian and am outraged at the audacity of your president to suggest a bailout is the only way. NOT. Give the money back to the people... don't give them a giant bill they will never ever be able to repay. I just don't get your leaders today. Rob from the poor to give to the rich and tell us that is far to complicated for us to figure out and just trust us. You gotta be joking right??

This Uncertainty Is Unacceptable

I am a Canadian and I am beside myself with how rough shod the US has treated its citizens. Not only do thousands of people lose their life savings and houses, go bankrupt and must live below poverty without the hope of a job BUT then these gentlemen have the audacity to ask for public money to bail out private companies. I am utterly excited that Americans are waking up to this ridiculous solution put forward by Ben and Hank, the 21 st century Fannie and Freddie... money goes in does not come out. Tens of thousands of you should be outside the whitehouse screaming at how these elite few will put you and your children in debt FOREVER without any hope of repayment. What a scam indeed, Mr Catalano is 100% correct when he writes "how could they not be able to figure this out" . He is correct when he argues that this all could have been mitigated a long time ago, certainly at least a year ago. Please be aware where Paulson came from, Goldmann Sacchs, who have magically dodged the bullet and on the weekend are now a bank not an investment bank. Does this not make Americans wonder. It makes the rest of us wonder.
Please write or phone your representatives to save yourself from a century of financial servitude from the likes of Bernanke and Paulson.
Sorry .... if it smells like a skunk IT IS A SKUNK.
A sham indeed.

Treasury's Plan Is Breathtakingly Awful

As a Canadian I am astounded there is not 500,000 people outside the Whitehouse protesting this deplorable use of power over the American people. You live in a free market system where you live and die by the sword. How dare anyone say this bailout is for the good of the world and the alternative would be worse. PROVE IT. Talk about stealing money from your children. Paulson, who used to be CEO of Goldman , wants complete authority. Are all Americans on crack not thinking that is a problem. You should be calling your representatives and complaining and yelling. What is being proposed will put your country into unrecoverable debt... perhaps what the FED wants indeed. Financial servitude. This 700 Billion dollar plan will end up costing THREE TIMES that. Don't be fooled people... this is a scam of the highest order. Magically the folks at Goldman are now safe by overnight becoming a bank. This is the scam of the Millennium.
Stand up for your rights and your children's right.
Why should the profits on wall street be privatized and the losses be socialized?? I truly don't get this. Change the rules in the middle of the game.... How convenient for Paulson's buddies at Goldmann.