Today’s economic lesson
So remember kids:
Federal government spending a single dime on infrastructure, health care, national parks, wildlife protection, arts or education: EVIL SOCIALISM!
Federal government spending $85 billion to purchase badly-mismanaged insurance company: AWESOME REPUBLICAN PHILOSOPHY FTW!
Welfare is okay if it’s for corporations.
Love it or leave it!, well considering the state of globalization, I guess leaving it would involve ¨the world¨. To Mars anyone???
Modern capitalism — Privatize the profits; socialize the costs.
If the government gets to sell it later for a profit, would that be okay? I assume that’s what they’ll do.
And I’m sure the money will then be given back to the taxpayers.
Ha! That assumes the money is actually coming from taxpayers to begin with. It might be more apt to sarcastically say, “And I’m sure the money will go to pay down our ever-ballooning national debt.”
I think big companies are like 3-year-olds. If you keep at least one eye on them and make sure they don’t get into trouble, they can be wonderful. But if you leave them to their own devices, pretty soon there’s jam all over everything and the dog is on fire. They can’t help it. It’s just their nature.
— N.A.
(shh, don’t tell the republicans, they haven’t had their nap and regulation makes them cranky.)
yeah, i love that what’s her name, big time hilary supporter, has sided with mccain/palin. republican economics are still republican economics!!!
I love how all these republicans who are so down on social welfare programs rant and rave about the free market, etc, but when it comes to a big privately owned corporation, they can’t seem to throw enough money at it to keep it afloat.
My icon says it all here.
Wait what? The invisible hand of the free market didn’t take care of everything?!? WHA HAPPEN?!?
It’s fascinating how much has happened in just the last week, let alone the last 72 hrs. Aside from the likely outcomes being very, very bad, no one seems to be able to map out the exact details. Who flatlines next(Wamu, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Wachovia,etc…) and what are the implications? It’s like Wall Street has become The Night of the Living Dead. The waste of it all boggles the mind.
With a steady stream of crises ahead in the foreseeable future, it makes me wonder how long before something snaps faster than it can be smoothed over. Unfortunately, it is probably more just a matter of “when” than “if” and sooner rather than later. Maybe Day of the Dead is closer to the mark: people in way over their heads surrounded by zombies.
Much as I hate the Republicans’ hypocrisy, $85 billion to stave off the total collapse of the global financial system for at least a little while longer seems reasonable.
Of course, what we really need is stronger regulation, as well as regulators who are eager and able to enforce the rules–neither of which we’ve had in the past 10 years.
–Ed.
P.S. Alan Greenspan, if you’re reading this: It’s all your fault!
P.P.S.
And Phil Gramm, I’m talking to you, too.
The rest of you What Does The Protagonist Want? readers may find this interesting: http://www.propublica.org/article/mccains-record-contrasts-with-promises-of-reforming-wall-st-916/
(Please forgive me — as an anonymous commenter, I can’t embed links.)
–Ed.
And a theme song that gets stuck your head for three days minimum.