As I watch the dollar lose more value*, the Fed seems to
want to head down that
inflationary road:
...
So Mr. Bernanke and his colleagues have been doing the usual thing: printing up green paper and using it to buy bonds. Unfortunately, the policy isn’t having much effect on the things that matter. Interest rates on government bonds are down — but financial chaos has made banks unwilling to take risks, and it’s getting harder, not easier, for businesses to borrow money.
...
Officially, the Fed won’t be buying mortgage-backed securities outright: it’s only accepting them as collateral in return for loans. But it’s definitely taking on some mortgage risk. Is this, to some extent, a bailout for banks? Yes.
Still, that’s not what has me worried. I’m more concerned that despite the extraordinary scale of Mr. Bernanke’s action — to my knowledge, no advanced-country’s central bank has ever exposed itself to this much market risk — the Fed still won’t manage to get a grip on the economy. You see, $400 billion sounds like a lot, but it’s still small compared with the problem.
...
I used to think that the major issues facing the next president would be how to get out of Iraq and what to do about health care. At this point, however, I suspect that the biggest problem for the next administration will be figuring out which parts of the financial system to bail out, how to pay the cleanup bills and how to explain what it’s doing to an angry public.
I'm not one for government bailouts of
any industry. Chrysler should have been allowed to go under, so should the airlines after September 11th. If Bear Stearns is circling the bowl, many others are about to follow. Are we gonna bail all of them out too?
I'm tired of all these big companies taking undue risk, reaping big profits when the getting is good, and then leaving the
public holding the bag. It's bad enough my taxes are supporting an illegal war in Iraq, I sure as Hell don't want them going to bail out some obscenely rich motherfuckers who are afraid of losing their mansions in the Hamptons or on Long Island's Gold Coast.
The half-assed package they put through to help homeowners losing their houses thanks to 'subprime' mortgages helps very few in reality (the people who really could use it, though I have reservations about a homeowner bailout too), and took an act of Congress to accomplish. Seems they can move fast enough,
without the need for legislation, when one of their cronies is in danger of going tits-up.
The only good thing I can see coming out of the economy going to shit
now as opposed to this time next year, is that Bush and the Republican Party will be splattered with it (and the rich should
still get more tax cuts, says Mr. McCain). They own this mess and they can't hang it on the Dems, though they'll try; just watch.
Listen to me. The Republicans have no idea how to run a country, they just know how to rape it. They talk a good line but whenever they have control, they run the country into a hole it takes years to dig out of. The Dems might not be choirboys, but at least they make the best attempt at running the government for the
people, not the corporate giants the Rethugs are so beholden to.
Off to the shop ...
Update:My neighbor
Blondie has more to say (and some good links) on the subject.
Now I'm outta here ...
*Talk about an investment. I have about a thousand Euro left over from our Germany trip a couple months back. I was gonna turn them back into dollars but decided to hold onto them for our Amsterdam trip this September. Over the last quarter, they've returned more than any of my other investments and all they're doing is sitting in an envelope in a drawer. Heh ...
