Monday, September 22, 2008

I Hear Ya...The Economy

I see your point, David. And I have no problem with guaranteeing that the people who invested are able to get their money out. Maybe this clip was an abbreviation of the larger argument, the one that I agree with is asking conservatives what it really is that they believe. If you say that socialism is bad, then why is the first thing you turn to when there is a crisis socialism? And, if we are going to socialize the risk, and socialize the penalty, then shouldn't we also socialize the profit?

I also have a problem with allowing all of the people who told us that what we needed was less and less regulation so that their unconstrained genius could work its magic on the market, who then fell flat on their faces, to collectively cry "do over." No. You failed. You are done. Your ideology has been proven wrong. Move along. If the government, meaning the citizenry, is going to bail these companies out, it must also come with the stipulation that, as the largest investor, the government, and we as stockholders, get to exercise a large say in how the company is run. Regulation, is another name for it I believe.



Wow, Andrew Sullivan is still a jackass. Never saw that coming.

7 comments:

The Morholt said...

Absolutely; you are preaching to the choir on this. I was a socialist when things were going well, and one of my main issues with the bailout is that we will turn it all back over to the same ideologues that wrecked it in the first palce, are not really taking it out of their hands at all, just changing ceos rather than governing the businesses. I don't want to see regulation of mega-corporations, I want to see nationalization and administration of those businesses.
I feel foolish for investing in a privatized fund at all, but the republicans were running all three branches of govt at the time and seemed hellbent on bankrupting all social services, so i had to asses risk or end up desperate when and if I retire. Now if only my investments would be nationalized as they nationalized the debts of these businesses...

The Artful Insomniac said...

It seems with this plan, the taxpayer will absorbing all the bad debt, but if any profits come of it, we will not see it. I think Andrew Sullivan's argument was wrong in that yeah the American people have been living beyond our means, but our leaders have not only allowed, but encouraged making it almost mandatory. It's been said on the blog before in our time of greatest crisis, did our president ask us to step up and serve our neighbors, our community, our country? No he told us to go shopping.

Tonys_fake_macho_internet_persona said...

This shit makes my head hurt.


Chris Dodd said something about putting safeguards in the bill to stop the banks from screwing us over again, so that's some consolation to the taxpayers. I doubt that'll hold up against the neocons, though.


How bad do you think the inflation from the bailout will be? The FED wasn't holding up very well last time I checked. that+oversight+socializing the banks, not only their debts, are my big problems with the bailout. Between the interviews I've heard and the pressure congress is under, though, I sincerely doubt they'll make any major changes to Paulson's plan. Ugh. Is Japan hiring?

The Artful Insomniac said...

did you get a shout at on the MMA Sunday School? Are the guy that lives in Japan that washed dishes at Magnolia Cafe? They gave you props at the end of the show.

Tonys_fake_macho_internet_persona said...

Ha, I'm no expert on the economy so feel free to tell me what's so ludicrous about wondering where the money will come from when we only have 800 billion dollars in the federal reserve. That'd a lot of bonds. It seems like a damned if we do damned if we don't situation right now, and paying 50 dollars for a loaf of bread and being in another great depression bothers me more than anything else in this plan.

wwc said...

Really? Yeah, I wrote Scott Holmes a condolence note and told him to try Japan instead of Europe. I hadn't listened to the show yet though. Now I have been on Breen and Sunday School. As well as once appearing in Thrasher and MMR. I am like the vague background presence (ghost) in your family photos.

The Artful Insomniac said...

On Tony's point. This is a vexing stress, this bailout. I have heard different perspectives, but I have heard a idea that is floating around is bringing some of the companies that are being bailed to help manage the bailout, this seems troubling, as well the point that was brought up on NPR. That a lot of the administration that will be managing the bailout will be the same people looking for jobs with these companies when Bush is gone. This is a lot of money we are talking about, Taxpayer money and the president wants us hurry and go in crazy like. But it won't be his problem, now will it.

attempting to silence the voices in my head.