Pat on the back!

GM is a great example. Forget bailing out their “bank” business. GM’s problem is people don’t want to buy their cars. Fix that and the company is really bailed out.

I propose the idea of “Executive Mashups” for these troubled companies. In GM’s case, the Executive Mashup would be to partner with Steve Jobs to build the iCar.

More on my blog:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/steve-jobs-the-icar-barrack-obama-and-john-doerr/

It includes:

A beachfront condo!

Evangeline Lilly!

A never-ending bucket of Corona!

What? Too much???

As always (with our current government): I am shaken, not stirred!

Where have all the bailout bucks gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the bailout bucks gone?
Long time ago
Where have all bailout bucks gone?
Greedy bankers and AIG Sponge Bobs have picked them every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

Where have all the hedge funds gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the hedge funds gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the hedge funds gone?
Exploded every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the investment bankers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the investment bankers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the investment bankers gone?
Gone and laid off every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the investors gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the investors gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the investors gone?
Fled to cash every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the trading profits gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the trading profits gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the trading profits gone?
Covered with toxic mark downs every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

I suppose you made a good decision. It’s fashionable now.

Have you sent your resume to MSNBC?

First of all, if you are going to talk about companies *morphing into banks* so they can cut the line for bailouts you had to mention Goldman Sachs first. Their conversion to a *bank* couldn’t have been more transparent.

Of course the banks are hoarding the cash – just as they did in the early 1990s.

They are also using it to pay bonuses.

http://marginalizingmorons.blogspot.com/2008/10/unfreaking-believable-main-streets.html

What started out as a coherent discussion on the failings of the *bailout* quickly degenerated into a call for nationalized healthcare and a statist directed energy plan.

Snooze.

CEI has joined with the National Taxpayers Union (you may remember McCain citing them during the debates) to create BeyondBailouts.org. The allows visitors to write their Congressman, sign a petition, and view syndicated news from several think tanks and advocacy groups.

Our roster includes the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Club for Growth.

Oh well, that’s what you get when an ex-Goldman Sachs guy is running the the show.

Its all smoke and mirrors.

spitzer was on to something when he was, now cuomo is jacking with “their” bonus $.

At 7AM tomorrow morning the US Treasury, Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) jointly announce that one of the core functions of banks is to make good loans. If said banks don’t immediately start making good loans they no longer meet the criteria of being a bank and will have their banking licenses revoked starting at 7AM the following morning.

Deposits will immediately be seized and auctioned to banks willing to make good loans. This has to be tied with banks being mandated to write down their questionable assets to their true values.

Concurrently, the US Congress has to magically grow the appropriate anatomy and immediately reenact the Glass-Steagall Act in its entirety.

I mean, isn’t it so obvious at this point? Of course Bush and Paulson aren’t placing restrictions on the money being given away… that’s because it is a GIVE AWAY.

“fire away” i think were my exact words.

In other words, now the risk of the loan is put on the taxpayer so we’re going to use Fannie Mae strategies to make loans. Why not make more bad loans? The bank gets all this cash and if the loan goes bad, so the hell what. I want a $50,000 loan. You have somebody with a mortgage loss of $30,000 because the property value dropped and now they want to borrow more money to keep up with their expenses instead of selling property at a loss. The logic is that they didn’t borrow too much, they didn’t borrow enough money they can’t repay and the White House is saying deficits don’t matter. It’s lunacy.

“‘’What we’re trying to do is get banks to do what they are supposed to do, which is support the system that we have in America. And banks exist to lend money,’’ White House press secretary Dana Perino said.” Dealbook

Banks exist to protect deposits. Lending is down because the economy is so bad, so less people are in the market for loans. You can’t force people to borrow money. Many of the people who borrowed can’t repay the loans. What’s the solution? Lend more money people can’t afford. If loans got us into the mess, the logic is that loans will get us out of it. Look at the national debt and you’ll see how these people think. They’re talking about printing unlimited money as publishers face turning off the presses. Maybe we can just all print our own money on our HP Deskjets next.

I think that’s the plan. And I think the US is eager to begin. Will it work? I’m resigned to being on the wrong end of the transfusion with the stopcock opened wide.

You need to follow the business news a bit more closely:

General Motors and the United Auto Workers have struck a deal that lets the automaker move $50 billion of retiree health obligations off its balance sheet. In return, the union gets to set and manage the health-insurance benefits.

– Sept 26, 2007

This doesn’t invalidate your larger point that we need a national health coverage system. If you are really interested in the topic visit http://www.healthbeatblog.org/ where such topics are regular fare.

It seems there is little pressure for change because those with the most voting clout (middle class voters in stable jobs) still get their coverage through their employers and are afraid to rock the boat. In addition the large number of middlemen who service the present inefficient system are a strong lobbying force with congress.

Notice that neither candidate is proposing any substantive change to the system.