Paulson drop kicks toxic-asset purchases

Would be good way to bail out the auto industry, too keep the money from flowing to the union and big shots in management-

We may end up with $1 gas yet.

There is so much wrong here with the modern Republican party. Market principles lead to a market crash that is scaring the pants off of everybody and even its chief architect, Alan Greenspan, admitted as much. And reducing the size and role of government? After you've spent us into oblivion with tax cuts for the rich, the Iraq war and now the bailout of the economy? How can you ever talk about these things again and have anybody take your party seriously?

The elephant in the room is that the "conservative" Republic party has had pretty much the run of the whole U.S. government. They controlled Congress for 10 of the last 12 years and they controlled the White House for the last eight years....and they screwed it up royally. Foreign policy. Domestic policy, Economic policy......etc etc.
The whole country has been laid to waste in every direction thanks to their "re-distribute the wealth upwords" and warmongering policies.

Here's some advice for our Wingnut friends (John W, Terry etc):
Start with truth. Admit that absolute power corrupted absolutely. That market places don't run without regulation because everybody cheats and nobody wins. That stripping the middle class to enrich the wealthy robs from everybody. That being a thug in the world leads to dead Americans that has ruined our reputation and emptied our treasury.

That somewhere, you'll find good, honest people who can debate policy without using fear, smear and racism as campaign and policy tactics.

That somehow you'll find some honest-to-goodness morals and a desire to serve the country and not a bunch of rich lobbyists, big oil and big corporations.

Otherwise, you will operate on the fringes of society clinging to a couple of electoral votes in the Southern States.

JE,
Makes ya wonder if Woodward wants to rename his book about Greenspan from 'Maestro' to something more fitting. "Mess-maker'. 'Mangler', 'Myopic' ??
Any other fitting 'M" words, Swampies?

Save GM, Ford and Chrysler? Declare them banks (just ask American Express, among others).

We have to look at "the big picture." The days of tunnel vision are over. Our nation better wake up and smell the coffee. With all our bail outs along with the 168 billion economic stimulus package, that btw did nothing for our economy it is hard to understand why our government can't see the need to bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil. I am appalled at news stories of green technology losing hope of being furthered because of lower gas prices. How long does anyone really think this decline will last? OPEC holds the key and we are at their mercy. They just cut 2 million barrels in production a day and vow to cut more if prices don't rise again. Instead of spending billions upon billions on bailouts, why don't we instead invest in renewable energy. We have GUARANTEED returns if we do this. I just read a fascinating book by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW . I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in seeing our country become energy independent. www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com

C M, May I suggest "Master of Disaster"?

Wait.....that would not be sufficiently prescriptive nor could it effectively differentiate Uncle Al from other members of the current administration.

Anyway, Paulson didn't do this today because the "facts have changed."

He did it because:

There's a new sheriff coming to town.

This economic mess is much worse than anyone in the Bush administration let on. McCain can thank his lucky stars he didn't win, the challenges would have killed him in a week (and then we'd have Caribou Barbie calling the shots).

The bail-outs so far are nearing $3 trillion, on top of the $10 trillion national debt. Thanks for the train-wreck, Dubya.

Hank read, "If you give a mouse a cookie"

It's a children's book and it might help!

http://nomedals.blogspot.com

I will repeat...on C-SPAN yesterday.. an engineer quit the auto industry when he found out that it is not being run by auto people any more. If they sell you a car, they use the money to invest. The automotive industry is being run by investment bankers, NOT by people who want to make a living making a quality automobile. We should not bail out the auto industry with the current people running the industry.

lochnessmonster: Keep bangin away at that one buddy!!! And these investment banker types on the top have an awfully funny way of making sure they get theirs, and yours, and your buddys, and probably another 140 people in the company's share. Companies need to be owned by owners, not stock holders. It is proven that bean counters do not care about quality, or the long term health of the company. Look out America, we have only started this depression that the pugs and the greedy have put us in! Wait until 4th quarter numbers come in.....it will be like a bowling ball trying to swim. If I were a pug, I would start reclaiming myself as a libertarian and let the pug party burn in hell for what they have done to this country.

The bail-out that most Americans were against was an extensive bait and switch job.

This $700B, that was originally designed for purchasing distressed assets, is now a $700B slush fund for Bush and Paulson to do with whatever they please....?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Heckuva Job, Shrub.

What's good for Wall Street is good for Main Street. Actually what is good for Main Street is more important than what is good for Wall Street !! If for no other reason, than more Americans are affected by what happens on Main Street, than what happens on Wall Street !! If these Bushies can find a way to bailout the crooks and con artists in the Banking sector, than it can find the means to help the workers of the Auto Corps !! If it doesn't happen, there will be a very heavy price to pay. It would make that $4.50 a gallon of gas, look like a blue-plate special. With all the manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, at record pace, there would be now alternative, but to start the Works Programs. A sensible solution to the methodical economic destruction of the working and middle classes of America, by the " capitalists " of America !!l Cancel that tax break for the rich, raise the capital gains tax and tax the " heck " out of those greedy Corps !! Now, America can get back to being a democracy with capitalistic and socialistic elements in its economic make-up !! Let's work on dismantling the ruling oligarchy, here in America !! It has almost succeeded in dismantling our democracy !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

John E:
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You have me at a disadvantage because it is far easier for you to collect your ignorance and misperceptions in a short post than it is for me to answer all of it in the same space.
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I will admit, as you request, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I agree with those who framed the Constitution that a federal system is best because it diffuses and distributes power between the States and the federal government, as well as within the various branches of the federal government. That diffusion of power was intended to keep absolute power from concentrating in one place. This is why I cannot agree to a program in which the federal government grows larger, takes on more state government functions, and is shaped into a single, centralized and consolidated government - to the detriment of State and local governments. With Democrats in power, there is no chance of avoiding a bigger, more centralized federal government. It is their game plan to make it that way. I think we still have a chance at maintaining the federal system and a small federal government if we elect the right people, i.e. conservatives (though not necessarily Republicans). Thus, I will never be a Democrat, and I will never vote for one again.
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You castigate Republicans in government for having spent us into oblivion. There is merit in this. But, then again, those Republicans do not represent either my views or those of the vast majority of conservatives in the Republican Party. Orrin Hatch, for instance, complained that fiscal conservatives have not had a majority in the Senate for a very long time. Given the long Republican Senate majority until 2006, Hatch's statement was an admission that "Republicans" all too often are not "conservatives." The grass roots members of the Republican Party, on the other hand, neither like nor support deficit spending, fiscal irresponsibility, growing the federal government, or the suspension or erosion of constitutional and civil rights. You seem to think otherwise. Think again. Republicans lost nine days ago in no small part because their own conservative base abandoned them. That happened because of the increased awareness of the conservative base that their elected officials do not represent their interests.
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I reject the idea that markets can't run without regulation. We haven't had a truly free market system for a long time, in which case it is impossible to judge the viability of a market system without regulation from our own experiences. The only reason we are forced to regulate it now, to the extent that we do, is because there has been too much government or quasi-government interference and intervention in it.
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If you really want to know what went wrong with the economy, don't ask Greenspan. He was not being truthful when he blamed the crisis on the unregulated trade of Mortgaged Backed Securities. There has been a lot of noise on the subject, but no one - including Greenspan - has ever made a credible, logical case for blaming the crisis on the lack of bank or securities regulation. There is simply no credibly, demonstrable chain of causation between the lack of regulation and the crisis.
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The truth is that the problem was started by Greenspan's own Federal Reserve Bank. The FRB floated a lot of cheap money in the market for many years following 9/11 to combat recession. That, in turn, created the temptation (i.e. a moral hazard) for banks to grant loans to questionable borrowers based entirely on the assumption that real estate market values would remain the same or increase. The making of many of these "breathing body" or "liar" loans broke existing FDIC regulations for those very reasons. The loans were bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities - which has been a safe practice for decades; so much so, in fact, that the large credit rating agencies have long given MBSs high marks. Yet, because the defaults on real estate loans went through the roof based on conditions created by the banks - property values spiraled downward and the defaulting loans poisoned the MBS's that were traded. Thus, the problem started and festered with the excessive and unchecked behavior of the Federal Reserve Bank in inflating the money supply and keeping money cheaply available for so long. It is almost the same as the behavior of the FRB that started us down the road to the Great Depression. Hence, contrary to popular belief this is not a situation where the absence of banking regulations caused a problem. There were banking regulations that were violated and went unenforced. That and the lack of control by the FRB allowed the situation to escalate into a problem. You would never hear Greenspan admit any of this because he loves his FRB, and doesn't want the federal government to control it.
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I agree that stripping money from anyone - poor, middle-class or rich - to benefit any other socio-economic group is wrong. It is better to have everyone participate in, and benefit from, the creation of new wealth. Our priorities should include putting everyone to work. That is why I disagree with wealth redistribution whether in the form of corporate welfare or trying to tackle poverty by throwing money at it. None of it has ever worked. Both Democrats and Republicans do this, and I am sick of it from either side.
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I agree that being a thug in the world leads to dead Americans, estranged trading partners and less cooperative security. Contrary to some notions floated on this board, grass root Republicans do not favor endless war, nation building, regime changes, or any other version of militant Wilsonianism similar to that which Duh'bya and the neo-cons cooked up. A lot of Republicans initially supported the war in Iraq because they saw red following 9/11 and they believed Duh'bya when he said that Iraq was a legitimate target in the war on terror. They were misled like everyone else. They did not realize, and would not have supported, a war based on Duh'bya's ideological reasoning. Republican foreign policy prior to the Daddy Bush and Baby Bush was one of Realpolitik: Choosing our engagements on the basis of national interest instead of meddling in other people's politics for purely ideological reasons. This is why some deception was necessary to bring the Republican conservative base on board. Before Daddy Bush and Duh'bya came along, the last large scale war the Republicans got us into was the Spanish American War in 1896. That speaks largely to the conservative view that war is bad for business.

John W,
We've all been hearing about this mythical small govt conservatism from Repugs like you for the last 30 years and yet you've never bothered to implement it when you have come to power.
Show us some results (and not something that happened years ago) or put a sock in it.