freeAgent

Lower Prices Now- Massive Inflation Later?

I think it all boils down to MV=PY. V dropped off a cliff. M is blowing up. If/when V rises, we're going to be in for quite a bit of inflation.

From Bailout to Wipeout

Prices are the market's way of valuing anything and everything. The government has decreed that the price of certain things should never fall (below some arbitrary floor at least). Unfortunately, it's hard to tell the market what to do.

Inflation: One Worry to Cross Off the List

What do you think will happen once all this newly-printed money starts flowing?

Ben Bernanke, Revisionist

Perhaps you were right then and you're wrong now? We can never know what the future brings. How will you judge the success or failure of the current bailouts? It's good to set baselines before you see results.

Historic Post-Crash Market Returns: How Will This Crash Fare?

Thanks for doing all the research for me! It's good to get a historical perspective on crashes when deciding how to deal with crashes occurring in real-time.

Dollar Soars

Is it that hard to understand why this is happening? The dollar was pushed lower based on the speculation of having a bailout which would have undermined the value of the dollar. That didn't happen, so the speculators are losing out as it becomes apparent that we're not going to be printing that $700 billion.

A Bad Day, Yes, But Enough with the Hyperbole

Thanks for putting out a level-headed article on the stock market drop. It seems all too many people and news outlets were ready to trumpet this as some sort of death knell for the economy.

-777.7: Where Do We Go from Here?

Oops, gain = pain.

-777.7: Where Do We Go from Here?

I'm glad that it appears we're going to get this over and done with as quickly as possible. Sometimes it's best to endure intense short-term gain rather than continuing to ignore a festering disease.

Capitalism Applies to Everyone - Including Big Business

Yes, capitalists are in the unfortunate minority these days. It irks me to no end that this crisis is being called a failure of the market. The show is and has been run by corporate interests. What we need to do is cut back the government and let these institutions reap what they have sowed. Too bad that ain't gonna happen.

What $700 Billion Bailout? It’s Just $3,324 a Head!

You miss the fact that a lot of these Americans are not net earners. You're also talking about a plan that will devalue the currency, placing even further strain on those trying to pay it off. Finally, you're sending a message that says you're allowed to keep your free market gains but we'll socialize your free market losses as long as you're "too big to fail". It sets a dangerous precedent and fundamentally changes our economic system. Have you visited the website buymyshitpile.com yet? What's the justification for this bailout over any other? We could simply turn that bailout money into equity payments on mortgages about to default. I'm against doing that as well, but wouldn't it have a similar type of bailout effect?

Another Day Without Precedent

What we need is negative interest rates. That will solve the liquidity crisis.

Why The Paulson Plan Won’t Work

I agree with the market for lemons analogy. It is, in this case, entirely accurate. However, I don't think that the solution here is government regulation. Government regulation is highly ineffective. As you said in the article itself, a large number of these mortgages which precipitated the collapse were /already illegal/ under current regulations. There are many problems here, but I don't believe lack of government regulation is one of them. We had artificially low interest rates from the Fed. We had Fannie and Freddie with mandates to supply the market with "affordable housing". We had banks taking the cheap money from the Fed and throwing it at anything that looked like it would provide return. You had the people on the street actually offering mortgages as well as the people entering into them flat-out lying in all directions. We need to bring accountability back into our system, and it will require a painful dose of reality for those involved--which is all of us. Some will hurt more than others, but it appears that those who will hurt the most are those who were closest to the fraud and whitewashing. The last thing we need is to spread and prolong the suffering through bailouts, inflation, nationalization, and regulation.

Academic Economists vs. Paulson

I suspect it's worded weakly and is overly vague because the authors wanted to attract as many signatories as possible. I'm sure that many of these academics have much more to say on the subject but kept it to a general disapproval of the current plan in order to magnify their voice. Seeing how Bernanke and Paulson are attempting to ram this through Congress, I can understand why they would want to release this as quickly as possible.

Wall Street’s Special Offer – But You Must Act Now!

Wow, that's a great deal. It's too bad I blew all my money on a bunch of those non-circulating Liberian legal tender 9+11=$20 (Liberian) Dollars minted in silver leaf but nobody seems to realize how valuable these $20 notes really are! I figured that if they were selling them for under $20 US then I should be able to flip them immediately at a profit, but I guess not. Maybe once we restore liquidity...