Monday, September 29, 2008

Are you sure this bailout bill should pass?



Two excellent articles on the present financial market failures:

Gretchen Morgenson, writing in the Times on Sunday:

In the case of A.I.G., the virus exploded from a freewheeling little 377-person unit in London, and flourished in a climate of opulent pay, lax oversight and blind faith in financial risk models. It nearly decimated one of the world’s most admired companies, a seemingly sturdy insurer with a trillion-dollar balance sheet, 116,000 employees and operations in 130 countries.
David Kay Johnson, writing in The New Republic, asks some good questions about the assumptions behind the bailout plan:

Taxpayers should be troubled that on Capitol Hill and at the White House the talk was about modifying the Paulson plan, not a different approach. They should be just as troubled that most news reporters and TV anchors initially assumed that there must be a crisis and only asked questions around the edges of the plan instead of taking it apart.
I'm not sure the bailout bill is going to pass, and I have my doubts that it should. I don't trust Bush and Paulson, and now that the House Republicans have emerged from the ooze to put their slimy stamp on it, I have even less confidence. I wish I had some reason to trust Pelosi and Reid, but we have spent the past two years waiting for them to do something about Iraq - their record of humiliating failure does not inspire confidence.

We live in an America whose priorities are set by the multi-millionaires, where average people get played, and the game is rigged so that all the benefits go to those who already have the most.

Do you really trust these people with $700 billion?

Technorati Tags:

posted at 7:36:00 AM by Neil

| +Save/Share | |




FEATURED QUOTE

"It is the logic of our times
No subject for immortal verse
That we who lived by honest dreams
Defend the bad against the worse."


-- Cecil Day-Lewis from Where Are The War Poets?


ABOUT US

  • What is the Blue Voice?
  • Bruce Miller
  • Fdtate
  • Marcia Ellen (on hiatus)
  • Marigolds2
  • Neil
  • Tankwoman
  • Wonky Muse

  • RECENT POSTS

  • Champion of the High Rollers, and the Holy Rollers...
  • Spent
  • McCain's Gambling Problem
  • On Second Thought
  • Today's Polls
  • I'm thinking of a word...
  • More on the Bush Doctrine that is now so perplexin...
  • Afghanistan, the Right War?
  • A Sharp Take on the Debate
  • Iraq War "success" and The Surge

  • ARCHIVES




    RECENT COMMENTS

    [Tip: Point cursor to any comment to see title of post being discussed.]
    SEARCH THIS SITE
    Google
    www TBV

    BLUE'S NEWS





    ACT BLUE











    BLUE LINKS

    Environmental Links
    Gay/Lesbian Links
    News & Media Links
    Organization Links
    Political Links
    Religious Links
    Watchdog Links

    BLUE ROLL


    MISCELLANEOUS

    Atom/XML Feed
    Blogarama - Blog Directory
    Blogwise - blog directory

    Blogstreet
    Haloscan


    Blogger

    hits since 06-13-2005

    site design: wonky muse
    image: fpsoftlab.com