Ramblings from a relocated and under-employed Southeastern Kentuckian. Liberal politics, art, music, movies, books,sports, games, whatever else strikes my fancy....Sad and strange the days that are no more...
At current market valuations (GM is worth less than Mattel) the Chinese government can afford to buy GM with petty cash. Even a hundred billion $ would barely dent China's more than $2t in currency reserves. For nobody in the world would buying GM and (while they are at it) Chrysler make more sense than for the Chinese. Overlap? What overlap? They would gain instant access to the world's markets with accepted brands, and proven technology.
This is pretty funny. After the Bailout plan failed to pass today the Republican's claimed that they let it fail because of apparently mean things that Pelosi and a few other Dems had said. Here's Barney Frank with a pretty good take on that:
I really don't know what happened with the Bailout bill today. Or the vast amount of manuevering going on in the background. Like most I'm only seeing the surface. I'm pretty sure that dubya lost big today. For real. I think he wanted this bad. His final gutting of the US Treasury. Of course he's still going to get it, but just not as completely as he and "Crony,Inc" wanted.
The Democrats? I don't know what's going on there. Are they selling out the US Treasury? Are they playing the Republicans, or are they being played? Like a HUGE majority of Americans I want something to be done, but only what has to be done - and with a taxpayer payback and maybe even a taxpayer profit. Not another giant, free, taxpayer trough for fatcats. This whole bailout episode has been a strange trip from the beginning. I'm a Liberal's Liberal, and I didn't like the smell of this whole bailout deal one little bit from day one. As this has dragged on it seemed like the only politicians who agreed with me were rightwing Republicans, WTF!? Hell, Jim Bunning was agreeing with me for god's sake! Every time I'd see a tv News report on the massive effort to get it passed it would be Pelosi and the rest of "my" Democratic Party out front and center, again WTF!? Strange, strange, strange...I can't decide(and will never know) what was going on behind the scenes of this little tempest. John McCain got played but who else? Maybe now they'll go back and come up with something that doesn't throw away the middle class and the US Treasury(what's left of it) to the robber barons. Good luck with that.
Those who got it right: “This bill did not adequately protect taxpayers in Kentucky and across the nation. It is not the taxpayer’s responsibility to pay for mistakes made on Wall Street. While the legislation that was considered in the House today was an improvement over the unacceptable three-page proposal offered by Secretary Paulson, it still would have given the Treasury Department unprecedented authority to intervene in the private markets." -Rep. Geoff Davis(R-Ky) “The case was not proved that there was sufficient need for this drastic a measure. It was not proved that this plan was the proper antidote, the thing was couched in the terms that it was a bailout of Wall Street fat cats. And I can assure you that there’s no enthusiasm for bailing out Wall Street fat cats.” -Rep. Ben Chandler(D-Ky) “We were giving unprecedented power to one person, the Secretary of the Treasury. We have no way to intervene in what he did unless it was proved unconstitutional, we were creating an economic czar, someone who comes out of the same segment of the economy that created what we’re dealing with.” -Rep. John Yarmuth(D-Ky)
I'm like a "Bigfoot" of Bloggers. I'm out there somewhere-get spotted sometimes-and few think I'm real. Still got a LOT of pain in my right shoulder, arm and hand. Everyone's gone so I'm going to take advantage to slap up a post or two(chores can wait) and cruize some news. Get a Blog refresher if nothing else. I've got Internet news and gossip to look at. My good news for now:
Watch Saturday Night Live's "Couric/Palin Interview", it's excellent. I can't get the video to imbed for some crazy reason. Amy Poehler's blinking as Katie Couric's response to the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin answers is worth it alone.
Bailout News: It's looking like a deal. Wall Street couldn't get our money through Social Security funds. So we've got, what I assume is plan B, BEEDOA(Bush Evil Empire Dumps On America), "The Rescue Bailout Plan", Cronyism Infectus Parasitus, or whateva or you want to call it. It's another pillaging of the US Treasury. I just hope Nancy and Harry don't give away the store, and what little's left for America's middle class and poor. The chances are not good. We'll see when the details come out.
Update: Well the details are emerging and so far it doesn't look horribly bad. If we have to bail out these SOB's, THESE Democrats could have done far worse. That's just on first read. More will come out in the next few days.
Also; Thankfully it appears that my take on the debate was wrong, and I wasn't the only one. Everything I've reading says Obama either won it, according to polls, or at least held his ground.
Maybe what peed me off watching it peed off the majority of other viewers in the same way. Who knows?
Nearly 200(And Counting) University Economists Plead With Congress To Bide Their Time On Bailout
And PLEEEZE whatever you do, DON'T listen to President 27%, or that guy(I think he was once a POW) that's running with Sarah Palin, the celebrity Guv.
Here's the economists:
To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:
As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:
1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.
2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.
3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.
For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.
I've been on a virtual sabbatical from the Blogging for a few days. I have some kind of severe shoulder pain and don't know what it is(yet). Taking pain pills that don't help that much and taking off work because of the pain. I've been keeping up with the news as best I can and I'll keep this backwoods Blog updated as best I can, so all(6?) of my readers can check in sometimes. I'm glad to see that the Democrats seem to be holding firm(so far) on dumbya's massive banking bailout. There has to be accountability, some supervision, some kind of new rules, etc. I thought the Dems would fold quickly but there's still some backbone there. Here's Rachel Maddow with Paul Krugman:
