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Won't Get Fooled Again
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on September 22, 2008 at 07:05 AM in Current Affairs, Political Science | Permalink
Comments
Ouch! Brilliant!
Posted by: John at Sep 22, 2008 7:11:40 AM
Spot on.
Posted by: ogmb at Sep 22, 2008 7:38:21 AM
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that President Bush is again choosing the shock doctrine, as he did in pushing for the Iraq War, to subvert the democratic process. His wish is to tie up the financial freedom of an Obama presidency. There needs to be a more uniform response (screaming, yelling, etc.) from intelligent people in America that we will not be bullied again in the same way into another terrible plan.
Posted by: a person at Sep 22, 2008 7:40:38 AM
Can we assume a CC license? I'd like to pass this around, with attribution of course.
Posted by: ogmb at Sep 22, 2008 8:27:49 AM
Next argument for this bailout: Do you want to wait for a financial mushroom cloud?
Posted by: Panjack at Sep 22, 2008 8:56:16 AM
Probably the best chance to get the bailout through is to give it a good name, like "the war on error." Then anyone against it can be vilified as a nonpatriot. "We must push on with the bailout for the honor of those valiant investment bankers who have already lost everything. Otherwise their losses will have been in vain."
Posted by: liberalarts at Sep 22, 2008 9:05:21 AM
(via Paul Krugman's blog post 'No Deal'), the text of the proposal:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html?ref=business
The proposal makes the Authorization for the Use of Force look like a very, very limited thing indeed; example:
"Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Frankly, the Democratic leadership in Congress should have executed Paulson on the spot for proposing this. Literally. The scum who gave us the Iraq war (lost, despite the redefinition of victory), the Afghani war (lost, albeit in very slow motion) and Osama Bin 'I'm not that concerned about him' Laden is again asking for a blank check?
Posted by: Barry at Sep 22, 2008 9:14:37 AM
Robert Reich is on the NO DEAL side:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/21/what_wall_street_should_do_to/index.php
Posted by: ogmb at Sep 22, 2008 9:25:29 AM
Fall street has WMI (toxic paper, aka, weapons of mass insolvency). We must go in and take them (WMI) OUT. We can't wait until the financial mushroom cloud.
Posted by: Panjack at Sep 22, 2008 9:30:36 AM
^^Maybe someone should photoshop a pic of Paulson and Bernanke flying over in a plane to drop a bomb. No wait. Make it a helicopter instead.
Posted by: pants at Sep 22, 2008 9:44:29 AM
Are we going to hear about metal tubes of unorthodox thickness (to be used to bury hard currency in underground bunkers, safe from federal authorities attempts to get their hands on the few remaining assets of the nationalized banks), and yellowcake from Niger (for a new, uranium based currency after the dollar turns into wastepaper) soon?
Posted by: albatross at Sep 22, 2008 10:42:18 AM
Joe Wilson flew up there and didn't find ANY toxic paper.
Posted by: David at Sep 22, 2008 10:48:54 AM
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that President Bush is again choosing the shock doctrine
It's increasingly clear that partisans on both sides are idiots.
Posted by: at Sep 22, 2008 10:55:35 AM
The markets hate us for our freedom...we need to give the Bernanke, Paulson more power to violate our freedom for our own good.
We also need to give JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs more of our money becuase JP morgan and Goldman Sachs can help the little guy more than we can ourselves. We would waste our money on dumb stuff like food, guns, gold and houses....Goldman and JP Morgan are like sacred gods to be protected at all costs.....and anyone who says different is probably a anti-semite.
Posted by: David Rockefeller at Sep 22, 2008 11:05:52 AM
ATTN:
Dear Sir/M Paulson,
I am Mr.David Mark. an Auditor of a BANK OF THE NORTH
INTERNATIONAL,ABUJA
(FCT). I have the courage to Crave indulgence for
this important business
believing that you will never let me down
either now or in the future. Some
years ago, ...
Posted by: ogmb at Sep 22, 2008 11:10:38 AM
"In 2007, Wall Street's five biggest firms-- Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley - paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves." ABC's Political Punch -- I say no Bail Out!
AND
Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22mccain.html?ref=politics
More McCain Hypocrisy! I now understand why McCain who has been Chairman of the Commerce Committee for years says he knows very little about the economy, the one truth he has been honest about, because it has always been about Corp. first, only and last!
Posted by: Angellight at Sep 22, 2008 11:26:08 AM
The Shock Doctine? LOL! This is the most socialist legislative frenzy our nation has seen in a decade!
http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2008/09/chirp-chirp-chi.html
Posted by: Brandon at Sep 22, 2008 12:33:30 PM
The only thing you missed was that the two long buildings in the upper right are the CDS laboratories.
Posted by: George at Sep 22, 2008 12:38:33 PM
His wish is to tie up the financial freedom of an Obama presidency.
Not really. What Bush is concerned about is defusing Democrat accusations that "You did nothing about the financial crisis!".
Dubya proposes an outrageous bailout plan, then Democrats are forced to do one of two things:
A) Reject the plan, and then have the Republicans say "Well, we tried to implement a plan to deal with the economy, but the Democrats didn't let us do it!".
B) Endorse the plan, and thereby lose the ability to say "Bush ignored the financial crises". Sure, they can argue "Bush didn't do enough for Main St.!!!", but it really takes the wind out of their sails... the most important thing in sound-bite politics is looking like you are "doing something".
Posted by: Rex Rhino at Sep 22, 2008 12:48:21 PM
You forgot the captions for "greed", "ceo salaries" "deregulation"...
Posted by: guy in the veal calf office at Sep 22, 2008 12:49:26 PM
In response to Rex, all the Dems need to do is put on lots of riders that favor 'the little guy' then those soundbites turn into "We tried to compromise with this partisan administration to come to an agreement that would reluctantly bail out the rich fat cats, but that would include help for you - those in struggling households. They weren't interested in helping taxpayers. We're not particularly interested in only rescuing the reckless Wall Street bankers who created this mess."
Posted by: meter at Sep 22, 2008 1:10:40 PM
Last time I checked, official democratic doctrine maintains Bush to be unreservedly dumb. Can’t you lefties once and for all make up you mind – is he at long last dumb or devilishly smart?
There needs to be a more uniform response (screaming, yelling, etc.) from intelligent people in America…
I thought intelligent people employ more rational means than yelling and screaming… oh, I’m sorry you meant “left leaning intelligent people”… but, of course! Add 'standing along the curbside with pensive placards' to complete the picture.
Posted by: Ozornik at Sep 22, 2008 1:26:11 PM
When we start seeing Janeane Garofolo as a guest on Fox News, we'll know it's time to panic.
Posted by: slag at Sep 22, 2008 1:45:32 PM
a person said:
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that President Bush is again choosing the shock doctrine, as he did in pushing for the Iraq War, to subvert the democratic process. His wish is to tie up the financial freedom of an Obama presidency. There needs to be a more uniform response (screaming, yelling, etc.) from intelligent people in America that we will not be bullied again in the same way into another terrible plan.
Wow, until you put it so succinctly, it hadn't really hit me. Let this be an encouragement to all comment-leavers: You can change minds!
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Sep 22, 2008 1:52:10 PM
BTW I realize I am sometimes a wiseguy, so I should be clear: I really liked a person's analogy to the Iraq War. But until his post, I hadn't seen how this handcuffs Obama should he win. If McCain wins, presumably things will go a little easier and he'll be able to spend money.
E.g., couldn't the few remaining important banks just *pretend* to have a credit crunch? Would the politicians be able to tell the difference? The Paulson Plan gives much more influence to the people running Goldman Sachs than those people had 12 months ago.
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Sep 22, 2008 1:56:06 PM
