DS
Fenderbender
I found this on vindy,no author was mentioned,but I found it informative and well...kindy scary.Its BIG money 700billion$
I know it involves low interest loans to failing corporations,but I
fail to comprehend how that would help anything.If anyone can
explain it in laymans terms please do.Heres the blog...
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Published:Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Taking stock of the national economy isn’t an exact science
We suppose it depends on what the definition of fundamentally is.
President Bush maintains that the U.S. economy remains fundamentally sound. Republican presidential candidate John McCain echoed those words, and then issued a clarification that he was talking not so much about the economy, but about the fundamental soundness of the American work force. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama sees very little about the economy that he would describe as sound.
The problem, of course, is that no one really knows. If you knew that the economy was sound (or that it was unsound) you’d be on your way to being a billionaire, because you would know exactly what to do with your money. (Buy low, sell high.)
What’s going on in an economy can only be known to a certainty through hindsight. On Oct. 28, 1929, everyone in the United States knew that the stock market had dropped by 12 percent, but no one knew that it was the first day of what came to be known years later as the Great Depression. But while no one may know what the economic future holds, the layman has reason to suspect that some people have been abusing the system in too many ways for way too long.
Ugly trends
Each year has seen hundreds of billions of dollars in budget deficits and the national debt has ballooned by about 65 percent over the last eight years. During the same time, trillions of dollars in U.S. trade deficits for durable goods and electronics from China and other parts of Asia and for oil from the Middle East and South America have resulted in foreign countries holding much of our debt. Few people could remember when the United States was less the master of its own economic destiny than it is today.
The Bush administration sent a message to Wall Street over the weekend that it was done with bailouts when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said taxpayer money would no longer be used to bail out troubled investment banks. Lehman Brothers responded by filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreed to be bought out by Bank of America. Still desperately searching for cash is insurance giant AIG.
Paulson seemed adamant: Wall Street would have to start finding ways of saving itself. But the street wasn’t left totally on its own. The Federal Reserve will continue to make short-term emergency loans under generous terms to solvent investment banks suffering temporary liquidity problems and this week it broadened the type of securities it would accept as loan collateral.
But in truth, the administration will be holding its breath. While the administration was willing to let Lehman and Merrill Lynch fend for themselves, it knew a week earlier that it couldn’t stand by and allow mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fail.
We said at the time that the Fannie and Freddie bailouts might not be the end of what the federal government will have to do to prop up the economy, and we will stand by that.
But no one knows.
I know it involves low interest loans to failing corporations,but I
fail to comprehend how that would help anything.If anyone can
explain it in laymans terms please do.Heres the blog...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Published:Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Taking stock of the national economy isn’t an exact science
We suppose it depends on what the definition of fundamentally is.
President Bush maintains that the U.S. economy remains fundamentally sound. Republican presidential candidate John McCain echoed those words, and then issued a clarification that he was talking not so much about the economy, but about the fundamental soundness of the American work force. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama sees very little about the economy that he would describe as sound.
The problem, of course, is that no one really knows. If you knew that the economy was sound (or that it was unsound) you’d be on your way to being a billionaire, because you would know exactly what to do with your money. (Buy low, sell high.)
What’s going on in an economy can only be known to a certainty through hindsight. On Oct. 28, 1929, everyone in the United States knew that the stock market had dropped by 12 percent, but no one knew that it was the first day of what came to be known years later as the Great Depression. But while no one may know what the economic future holds, the layman has reason to suspect that some people have been abusing the system in too many ways for way too long.
Ugly trends
Each year has seen hundreds of billions of dollars in budget deficits and the national debt has ballooned by about 65 percent over the last eight years. During the same time, trillions of dollars in U.S. trade deficits for durable goods and electronics from China and other parts of Asia and for oil from the Middle East and South America have resulted in foreign countries holding much of our debt. Few people could remember when the United States was less the master of its own economic destiny than it is today.
The Bush administration sent a message to Wall Street over the weekend that it was done with bailouts when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said taxpayer money would no longer be used to bail out troubled investment banks. Lehman Brothers responded by filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreed to be bought out by Bank of America. Still desperately searching for cash is insurance giant AIG.
Paulson seemed adamant: Wall Street would have to start finding ways of saving itself. But the street wasn’t left totally on its own. The Federal Reserve will continue to make short-term emergency loans under generous terms to solvent investment banks suffering temporary liquidity problems and this week it broadened the type of securities it would accept as loan collateral.
But in truth, the administration will be holding its breath. While the administration was willing to let Lehman and Merrill Lynch fend for themselves, it knew a week earlier that it couldn’t stand by and allow mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fail.
We said at the time that the Fannie and Freddie bailouts might not be the end of what the federal government will have to do to prop up the economy, and we will stand by that.
But no one knows.
