A wise man said:
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel."
Why am I glad that the bailout package didn't pass, sending the market down almost 800 points? Because it was a terrible bill, and we can do better. This was like putting an arsonist in charge of putting out a fire. This bill would not only have bailed out the institutions that deserved to fail, but also the failed executives that ran them into the ground. Worse yet, it would have given near-dictatorial powers to an unelected official, the Treasury Secretary, whose actions would not be subject to Congressional oversight or judicial review. A blank check for $700 billion, with no questions asked.
No thank you. There will be another bailout package (and this won't be the last one, either, but that's a subject for another post.) In the meanwhile the market went down 7%, but the companies with real assets and real balance sheets will come back. Those who don't, like commercial banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, investment banks - sorry, almost forgot, we don't have any more of them any more; one investment bank failed and the last two changed themselves into holding companies - will go out of business anyway. I stopped adding up the total bailouts when they went over $1 trillion. Lehman, AIG, the FDIC, the auto companies...there are a lot more to come with no end in sight. The only reason the US Dollar hasn't gone off a cliff is that Europe and Asia have their own problems, and all currencies are weakening together. Gold (and silver) should be soaring against ALL currencies, but those are kept under wraps on the futures exchanges.
The answer is to buy physical metal, like coins and bars, but I think everyone else has figured that out now. Coin dealers are generally sold out of silver, and don't have much gold left either. When you CAN find silver, like on eBay, it sells at large premiums to the phony spot price.
The quote that opened this entry wasn't spoken this past week by some outraged taxpayer. Some 90% of Americans were against this bailout, and I am disappointed that both McCain and especially Obama supported it. The Congressmen who are assured re-election supported the bill. Fortunately, there were enough Congressmen in tough re-election races that they were afraid of a public backlash in November, and voted it down. For once they actually listened to their constituents.
So where did that quote come from? Abraham Lincoln said it in a speech to the Illinois legislature in 1837. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
For those who enjoyed seeing Hitler lose his shirt in the market, he managed to raise another stake and try again. For another look at You-know-who's problems in the stock market, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfvIstgOugc
No comments:
Post a Comment