Steve W from Ford

Too Big Has Failed: KC Fed Prez Says We Need Temporary Nationalization

It's interesting that discussion about nationalization of banks doesn't even touch upon the fact that this is the seizure of private property without due compensation we are talking about.
No one seems to have any constitutional problem with this because it seems to be assumed that the public benefit is so obvious.
Other than Citi I don't know of a major bank that is not profitable or has insufficient regulatory capital which would, at least, provide a pretext of a reason for nationalization.
So we are already at the point where a possible benefit to the state justifies violating THE basic prohibition in the constitution?

Wow!

Buffett and the Banks: Make the Most of a Bad Situation

Not only is the government propping up weak lenders it is, in effect, planning on doing this on a larger scale through the tax code. It is now explicit US policy to redistribute income from the haves to the have nots. What is this but taking resources from the productive side of the economy to give to the unproductive?
I will never again be surprised by what comes out of Washington after seeing candidate Obama and the entire media and democratic party ( almost the same thing these days) loudly deny the claim by McCain that Obama wants to "redistribute" the wealth during the campaign while now explicitly claiming this position, as Obama did yesterday.

Treasury's Bank Plan: Oh, How It's Flawed

The government has not "confiscated" private equity, as you claim. Many of the banks, particularly Citi, needed capital to survive. I don't recall anyone else willing to step up and invest tens of billions of dollars in the likes of Citi at ANY price. Without the capital injection Citi would be dead and the common shareholders, as well as many preferred and perhaps bond holders, would have seen their investment go to zero.
No the government SAVED these investors, at least in the case of Citi.

Thoughts on Last Night's Speech by the President

He missed the great opportunity he had to be POSITIVE last night. The American people desperately need to hear that things are turning around on the economy and he started out with more doom and gloom. It was 10 minutes into the speech before he, rather tepidly IMHO, gave much of an endorsement for progress on the economy.
Obama has the biggest microphone on the planet. He needs to spend more time reminding people that the tough times will pass and very good times lie ahead. He needs to repeat this over and over and over again to lift confidence and then, like magic, it will be true.
That speech was soooooo boring and ungracious. Just a rehash of his campaign speeches with a few digs at Bush, which are totally unnecessary and just diminish him.
And really, to have the Democrats cheering like madmen at the idea that he "inherited" the deficit is just too much! Like THEY didn't have ANYTHING to do with getting us to over 12T in debt!