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November 12, 2008 at 10:20:46
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 11/12/08: by Stephen Pizzo Page 1 of 2 page(s) |
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Holy creeping communism, Bat Man. What happened to that Mr. Market guy who arrived at the White House in 2000? Back then he was all about economic Darwinism;' swim or sink, hunt or die, Devil take the hindmost.
Well, at least he got that last one right. Since ordinary Americans became the hindmost during his tenure, the Devil has us by the balls. Serves us right -- right? I mean didn't we accept all that sub-prime candy the foremosters on the income scale offered us? (Hi little girl, want some cheap money?)
Trouble is that, while the Devil is taking the hindmost, he's not being allowed anywhere near those “candy” peddlers. No sooner did those guys begin sinking – because their normal prey (that would be us) dried up, than Mr. Market in Oval Office decided to launch a financial Berlin airlift, flying in plane loads of cash to keep them afloat, and fed in the fashion they'd become accustomed to:
“In recent months, AIG has come under fire for picking up a $440,000 tab for a weeklong retreat at the posh St. Regis Resort in California for top-performing insurance agents, just days after the U.S. government stepped in to save the company with a $85 billion taxpayer-funded loan. AIG also spent $86,000 for a hunting trip in England as the faltering company reaped another $37.8 billion in taxpayer funded loans....Lawmakers investigating AIG's meltdown said they were enraged that executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent $440,000 on the retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings.” (Full Story)
Mr. Market's airlift to starving foremosters was going to be “just” $700 billion, but then AIG, which had already been airlifted $85 billion, was still hungry. So...
“The US government ripped up its eight-week-old rescue deal for AIG and signed a new $150 billion plan that it hopes will be more likely to save the insurance giant from bankruptcy. An original $85bn loan agreed in September, topped up by a further $38bn last month, had failed to plug the growing black hole at the heart of the company's derivatives insurance business, the US Treasury conceded yesterday.” (Full)
Oh, and then there's that little matter of the extra $148 billion Mr. Market granted banks, no one mentioned at time:
Bush sneaks $146.3 billion in bank tax breaks
“With attention focused on the $700 billion bailout plan for banks, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson quietly slipped the banking industry an additional $140 billion tax windfall in late September, Washington Post reports...."Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no," said George Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. "They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks." (Full)
So, just roughly, you can figure Mr. Market wants to air-drop something approaching $2 trillion on the foremosters, so they can get back into the business of selling stuff to hindmosters --- who, if you recall, are currently have a Devil of a time themselves.
The next foremosters in line for an air drop is apparently the auto industry. It seems both parties want to help them out since they are combination of fore- and hindmosters. General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, are among America's foremost foremosters. On top of that they employ a couple of million hindmosters as well. So if they are allowed to starve both Republican and Democratic constituencies get hurt.
Therefore it is highly likely that, in the next few months, auto companies are going to end up with something around $50 billion in survival rations themselves.
I can hear some of you Mr. Market types right now.
“Well Pizzo, you smart ass, what would you do? Would you just let companies like AIG and GM go out of business? Do you know what economic and social chaos that would cause?”
Ah, you betchya I do. After all, banking and finance was my beat a reporter for nearly a quarter century. So, I know. I also know that we would not have gotten to this point had those companies been well-run, had not bent and/or broken the rules and if Mr. Market in the White House had regulated them properly. I know that. Do you?
So here we are, faced with the Hobson's choice; letting them fail or bailing them out, each route trading a set of immediate problems for future ones.
That is, unless there are strings attached. No wait, not strings, cables, chains and, where appropriate, handcuffs.
Take the automakers for example. If I were in charge of that bailout I would tell them;
“Okay, here's your $50 billion. Now, where's my seats at your corporate board table. I want a third of those seats. And,
About those cars you're gonna build with this money, they are going to be plug-in hybrids for starters.
Sure you can still build conventional gas-powered cars, but with limitations.
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"Ignore what he says, watch what he does"
Bush may talk free markets all he wants, but the key to understanding Bush is to ignore what he says and watch what he does … or did. If “Mr. Market” ever actually had to live by the rules of the free market, this pathetic loser would have died in a drunken stupor decades ago. But no. Bush’s life story is one of prevailing on family and political contacts to give him money, and then using that money to enrich himself at others’ expense. He has never produced and sold a thing of value in his life. He has lived his whole life that way, at Andover, Yale, Harvard, and in the Texas National Guard. With Arbusto Energy, Bush Exploration, Harken Energy, and the Texas Rangers he refined the art of getting rich off other people’s money while leaving them crumbs. He used his skills in manipulation and freeloading to their fullest advantage in two runs for Texas governor and, later, two terms as president. Free markets, my foot. "Mr. Market" is a professional con artist, nothing more. When Bush ran for president in 2000 and promised to raid the US Treasury to give everyone a $300 tax rebate if elected, I thought (a la Ronald Reagan), “There he goes again!” Once again, he was using other people’s money to enrich himself at their expense. In that case, he even had the temerity to buy people’s votes with their own money! Unfortunately, people bought it. What they have gotten in return is two wars, tens of thousands dead, great cities in ruins, a diminished reputation in the community of nations, and a tab for about $8 trillion in new debt by the time his actions are fully accounted for. And "Mr. Market" will be able to live like a maharajah the rest of his miserable and worthless life. “Mr. Market” should have been forced by his father and friends to live by marketplace rules. And We the People should have been smart enough to ignore what he said and watch what he did. (Just so there's no misunderstanding, I hold the president in low regard. REW) by Richard Wise (35 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 88 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:34:51 PM  (0+)
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So true,
and the majority of the American who bought into the "American Dream" don't realize the last word says it all. Like the first blogger says, if Bu$h had to live by the "Free Market" rules, he would not have survived, but instead in jail for being AWOL/Deserter, Inside Trading, a cocaine user who refuses to disclose the last time he's done it. The multi-generation crime syndicate Bu$h family have amassed an illegal and immorally gained fortune by bending the "Free market" rules to their favor. Resulting in fomenting Treason against the USA. these fascist's "Goon's & Thug's" should all be at Gitmo enduring what "Enemy Combatant's" have for the rest of their lives. by Stanimal (2 articles, 228 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 1260 comments [235 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:21:38 PM (0+)
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Free Markets
For years business funded economists have been preaching the dogma of free markets and free trade. Big business expressed their faith in free markets and privatization of almost all government services. The real workings of a free market for big business is privatize the profits and socialize the loses or expenses. Drown government in a bathtub but leave one agency intact, and that is the agency to provide billions of taxpayer funds to bail out wealthy gamblers should they place bad bets. One thing to remember when you feel that our government is completely incompetent, lobbyists of big business basically control our government and almost all of what gets pushed through congress so maybe the private sector is demonstrating incompetence and our government is just going along for the ride. by Gary Denson (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 283 comments) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 8:59:34 PM (0+)
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Bush has been gone for months now.
The Market fluctuations have not been toward Bush policies. Bush's term has been over from the start of the primaries. The Market has been reacting to the perceived future and it does not look good under Obama. by Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 990 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 9:59:53 PM (0+)
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Reply: Market Fluctuations
I disagree that Bush’s term has effectively been over since the primaries. The fact that he was leaving was known and has been priced into the markets for a long time – that always happens in an administration’s last year in office. Obama’s coming victory was priced into the market starting in late September and has been fully priced in for weeks. The prospect of an Obama victory became clear after McCain showed he was unable to control his own campaign messages, after he chose Sarah Palin as a running mate, and after the bit about suspending his campaign. Politics is not driving this market now. Mortgage defaults, lack of consumer confidence, the availability of credit, rising unemployment, lackluster earnings, and the continuing inability of financial firms to value their assets are driving the market now. Paulson added to the uncertainty yesterday when he announced the present state of TARP. The program appears to be in disarray. There is no oversight. There is mission shift. All that only adds to the uncertainty and, if there is one thing markets hate, it is uncertainty. I agree that the short-term future does not look good. But the economic outlook for the next few years has nothing to do with Obama. by Richard Wise (35 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 88 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 7:18:05 AM (0+)
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Reply: NOT AGAIN
This is the second time a far-right thingie has tied to blame the stock-market decline on Barack Obama while ignoring reality. Here's the facts: The market (Dow Jones Industrials) declined 565.71 points the first week of January;193.85 points the second week and 507.00 the third week. Anyone who knows anything about the market knows that what happens during January foretells the market direction for the entire year and in January Obama was still a long shot for the Democratic nomination. so had nothing to do with George W, Bush's economic disaster. After a brief attempt to rally in April, the market has been in a steady decline since the first of May. Obama has had nothing to do with it, but the right tries to lie itself around the mess it has created. by tabonsell (33 articles, 0 quicklinks, 39 diaries, 318 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 5:03:20 PM (0+)
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Egaltarian Markets
"All Pigs are equal. Bus some Pigs are more equal than others." Animal Farm George Orwell by g.z. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 9 comments) on Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 2:37:33 AM (0+)
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Forget Mr. Market
I'd like to know what happened to Mr. Trickle Down. by Nick van Nes (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 596 comments [150 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 7:42:16 AM (0+)
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Free market
Free market means freedom for the wealthy oligarchy to run the economy and the country and freedom to crush all opposition. by Ty (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 888 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 at 10:58:31 AM (0+)
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