Is it Too Late to Bail Out Enron?? [Note to Readers: I originally published the following post in mid-December. At that time, the cumulative federal bailout bill was about $2 trillion. Including guarantees of dubious bank assets, that number now is closer to $4 trillion — $173 billion of which has been pumped into just...Read More
Bailout Money Bolsters Banks Against Prospective Losses?“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. “ –Wayne Gretsky It’s a stretch to compare Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to the incomparable Wayne Gretsky; their ad hoc and inconsistent handling...Read More
Is it Too Late to Bail Out Enron?? “Supreme Court Overturns Bush v. Gore”–Headline; The Onion (12/9/2008) Watching what’s going on in Washington and on Wall Street, the Enron guys must be turning over in their . . jail bunk beds. Consider the following: –The audited financial statements of AIG, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, etc. obscured...Read More
Friedman’s Prescription: ‘Painful and Quick’ ActionAdd Tom Friedman to the very short list of commentators who: a) understand what just happened in — and to — the global financial system; and b) actually have some sort of coherent proposal about what to do about it. According to Friedman, we have just witnessed a “nuclear financial...Read More
Boycott Citigroup . . . Pay Higher Taxes?How do ordinary citizens disgusted by serial government bailouts of Wall Street register their displeasure? Assume that you are not prepared to join the ranks of the posse comitatus, and mail in your 1040 next April with just an expletive scrawled in crayon at the top, no payment...Read More
