[magprob]

YouTube - Ron Paul on Glenn Beck 4-1-08

[excon]

Hello again:

After looking a little deeper into this boondoggle brought to you by the conservative George Bush, I discover that this is the MOTHER of all government subsidies. It's a non-legislative appropriation that DOUBLES the size of all this year's congressional pork projects COMBINED.

If it wasn't so scary, I'd give it another one of my Bwa, ha ha's. But this is dangerous stuff.

Without so much as a vote of Congress, taxpayers are to buy sub-prime mortgage backed securities of undetermined value for $29 billion - the size of Panama's GDP, and the Federal Reserve Bank's entire annual profit.

They take this enormous risk so that JPM, a company worth $146 billion, has enough liquidity to make a major acquisition for next to nothing.

The taxpayer's involuntary generosity also benefits the other large institutional holders of mortgage-backed securities. For these, the bailout holds forth hope that the government will someday be there to save them from the free market as well.

Buy gold.

excon

[tomder55]

The way I read it the US tax payer would be liable to all 29 bil if the return on the sale of Bear Stearns assets was nothing . Bernanke said yesterday the Fed may end up making money on the deal. Bear Stearns execs say they had enough liquidity to weather the bad times without the bail out /sale . I look forward to the Congressional investigation.
There is a sort of topsy turvy logic to a lot of this stuff. The government is giving massive bailouts to companies that fail while at the same time holding hearings and contemplating punishing successful businesses.

[magprob]

Free Market? Can you say, "Nationalized?"

[tomder55]

At the beginning of this thread I pointed out that this is a classical Jefferson v Hamilton argument . The Fed was born because government interventionist were concerned that a private person (JP Morgan) had the ability to float a loan himself . If a private entity was going to have that much power it had to be in the government's control. Jefferson was always concerned about that much power and he was right . Simuarily Hamilton recognized that panics had to be avoided and he was also right. The Fed ;like so much else in our country was a compromise between competing philosophies... private and government control.
Yes Excon it is the equivalent of a large subsidy because it is in the interest of the nation to avoid bank panics ,runs etc. What is funny is that I don't hear you complaining that the Democrats think this new restructuring and consolidation move is not going far enough .

[excon]

Hello tom:

It can be assumed, that if I believe the right's answer is too far left, then those lefter than them are waaaay wronger than them too. I think.

excon