Keeping the World Safe for Billionaires
August 12, 2007 by demon princess
The U.S. market meltdown of the past few days has made other world economies nervous-nervous enough to dump a ton of cash into ours. The EU & Japan joined our own Federal Reserve in the injections, & dwarfed ours.
The New York Times asked yesterday, “Should the Federal Reserve help bail out billionaire hedge fund managers and millionaire traders - the very people who bought the risky mortgages that led to the current market panic?”
“That, in essence, is the question swirling around Ben S. Bernanke as he confronts the first crisis of his 18 months as Fed chairman.
“There are no shortages of opinions, and some are being shouted. Jim Cramer, known for his histrionics on the CNBC financial news channel, angrily called for Mr. Bernanke to lower interest rates, something the Fed has resisted doing.
“A week ago, Mr. Cramer charged that the Fed was ‘asleep’ and that the chairman ‘has no idea how bad it is out there’ in the markets. A video clip of his remarks has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube.
“Lower interest rates would help operators of hedge funds and other money managers because the housing market presumably would strengthen as mortgage rates fell. A revived mortgage market would give the hedge fund operators and other holders of the risky securities a chance to sell them, which they are having trouble doing now in the current nervous market.”
One has to wonder if lower rates will trickle down to affect the people who really need the assistance-the homeowners whose homes are at risk. In the alternative, maybe regulation of the more heinous abuses of lenders getting “creative” would help. And while we’re at it, maybe we should think about reigning in the practices of credit-card issuers with regard to escalation of interest rates, double-billing cycles & holding payments just a few days so as to be able to fatten their profits with unearned & unwarranted late fees…
Oh goodness me, what was your Demon thinking? Such interference with the “natural market” processes is bad & evil & to be avoided at all costs.
Unless, of course, you’re a billionaire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/business/11fed.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/12mortgage.html
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It all just makes my head spin!
If you really want a hearty laugh, click on the second link (NYT article). Poor investment banker gets hoisted on his own money-market petard!
Trickle down?!?!
Ooh, what a familiar, facetious phrase!
They will institute laws that take care of the heinous lenders and yes..bail these fuckers out..but once everything comes back around and looks sunny..they will relax those laws again.
Its a vicious circle..I mean come on..we bailed out plenty of corporations in our history..what is a couple more?
(snark button on full-tilt)
Great post about a nasty issue…sharks and pirhanas running this gambit…I do think that the foriegn markets are ascramble- and that the French leader did not come over just to have burgers at the Bush compound- he is a pretty sophisticated money man himself….just thinking…anyways…I don’t have any hedge funds- just my sticker bushes out front( which I love whacking), so I don’t understand some of the manvering that goes in with them or bonds or mortgages…but this I do know I think that the Heirarchy here has been operating with impunity and lack of future vision ( the “I -got-mine- so-screw -the masses mentality)…..and from studying history and the 1920’s and 1930s that mentaility NEVER ends well….I finally started watching Kramer this summer- and I was shocked that he actually makes sense…and he started talking about the Foreclosure Mess and perdicting it’s bigger implications before anyone else….
The Neighborhood I live in is full of empty houses….too many….and yes, it reminds me of the 1930’s…( from History books- I wasn’t round yet…but the photos of that era are striking…and look like what I see everyday..)
“trickle down”= water torture
Yes he had too bail out the Billionaires while the average Joe goes under.
Meanwhile he maybe making plans for a swift retreat to Paraguay if the people take back our country. However, like the Nazi’s before he will find there is nowhere safe to hide.
They will find him and bring him before the Hague for his War Crimes.
God Bless.
Anon…I hope you are right. I am aware of the extradition laws there…isn’t just so coincidental and all? It’s just a little bit much for me. Down with them all!
The meltdown is long overdue and will get a lot worse. Wait until Bush is gone or whatever happens in 2008 and the truth starts coming out as to this inflated false economy of Bush’s then you’ll see a meltdown.
it’s funny, Bush said he will not Bail victims out but there is money in the Budget to educate them. What an idiot. It was funny seeing Kramer so angry because he discounts everything negative about the market. That tells me what we already know and that in the end this is not good either.