Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gopher]

At one level, it means W. Bush explaining that he does not care what anyone in Academy has to say about anything. Also, behold how the two sides of the aisle seem to be bitterly arguing over such nonsense "Who is to blame!?!" issues Ya-ta Boy wants to raise on this thread, rather than setting all of that aside temporarily in order to lead. They cannot; they remained paralyzed. At my level, it also means people expressing sharp intolerance of others, clearly showing discomfort when having to share the same space with them for a lecture series, for example.

Did B. Clinton not address this a while ago when he referred to our increasing polarization? And has he not put this into practice, to show leadership on this, in the way he now very explicitly chooses to talk about McCain-Palin, and especially Palin?

[Kuros]

[mises]

Here are two excellent articles about the credit crises.

http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=3149

http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=3160

The entire system is a giant scam.

[Jandar]

Main Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpsjif5l8A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-tZ2SSlLI&feature=related

Foreclose Wall Street

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Gatsby]

Why did they have to wait till the last minute, when banks were about to fail within 24 hours or less, to ask for help?

You know, if Paulson and Bernacke had come to Congress saying there was a problem in the credit markets and banks six months ago, they would not have been able to get a $700 billion bailout aimed at Wall Street.

Congress would have had time to think. And they would have focused on the underlying problems: mortgage defaults, regulatory failings, and incompetent, overpaid CEOs.

The more advance warning they might have given, the more time there would have been to think, and dig. I don't think Wall Street wanted that. So they really had no choice but to wait as long as possible before admitting there was a problem.

I think we need to do something. Not just for the U.S., but to prevent repercussions around the world. But I think we should take the time we need to do it right. To find out just what the problem is and how serious it is. To hold hearings for financial experts and the public to have a chance to comment. You can't unify a country if you don't even give people a chance to have their say. And Congress (and the President?) should take time to explain the problem to the people, not just say, There's a problem; trust us to fix it.

As it is, this whole thing stinks. It's bad enough there is such a mess. OK, stuff happens. But there was absolutely no excuse for such financial wizards to not see there was a problem until banks were on the verge of collapse.

They waited long enough to tell us. Let them wait for their bailout!

[Tiger Beer]

[Ya-ta Boy]

McCain today appeared in an interview and said we shouldn't be trying to place blame and of course we then had a poster channeling that mantra. It sounds all sweetness and light, New Ageish 'why can't we all just get along' but is it the right approach?

I don't think so.

I am reminded of a family story. Uncle Charlie, a two-pack a day man, was feeling poorly and went in to see the town's only doctor. Blood was checked, tests were run, x-rays were taken and in the end, Doc Fowler called in Uncle Charlie and said, "I'm sorry, but I have some bad news for you. You have a spot on your lung and it looks like it could be cancer. Let's sit down and have a cigarette and discuss your problem and your options."

It doesn't do any good to just do 'something', anything just to be doing something. It's far better to take a few days and figure out what the options are and then choose the best one, even if that one isn't the right thing. Calculate the odds, anyway.

We have to first identify what we think the problem is, and then work from there. Maybe in the end we'll have been wrong. But just to act without making an attempt to identify the problem and avoid repeating more of the same problem is foolish. I'd go further--it's suicidal. It could even be that we are being played for suckers by the very people who caused the problem.

Most of the people saying, "Don't place blame. Now is not the time" are in fact defending what most people think deserves to be blamed. Maybe in the end the unregulated free marketers will have been right. Maybe the real problem was the mechanations of Sarah Palin's Kenyan witchdoctor putting a curse on us and not unfettered free market capitalism with the invisible hands.

[mises]

[Tiger Beer]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I see we posted at the same time.

The way I see Ronald Reagan/Ron Paul (people named Ron seem to be the bete noir of modern American history, if I may so note) is that they had half a plan. They cooperated to cut taxes, always a safe thing with the public--Would you prefer to have more money to spend this month or less?--a safe, easy, comfortable position to take. Dare I say a populist position? An irresponsible populist position?

And then the next month a bill comes up for cutting spending. Well of course they oppose that, but not with enough support to actually succeed.

So the debt goes up.

As leaders, their responsibility was to form a consensus to cut spending first, then cut taxes. They didn't object to expanding military spending. Reagan at least rather revelled in it. The politics of fear. Evil empire and all that.

[Detail: It took about 200 years to amass a federal deficit of $1 trillion up to 1980. Unconscionable. It should never have happened. But Reagan ran it up to about $4 trillion. Bush II has run it up to almost $10 trillion.]

This whole debacle of the last two weeks would look very very different if the debt was a few billion dollars.

[mises]

Actually, it hit 10 trillion today.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Oh, joy.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[bacasper]