Tangent September 19, 2008
Posted by Zack in , trackbackMy friend Marc Laitin just sent this:
Some of you will be too young to remember the Chrysler bailout.
Another friend of mine, who understands the economics of the bailouts happening now just said this about the ban on short selling:
“Everyone who was smart and was betting against financial companies just got punished; Everyone who was idiotic and was betting for them just made the most incredible amounts of money.”
So much for the free market.
Comments»
LOL … not only do I remember the Chrysler bailout, I remember that song!! That must make me Jehosephat or the female version of him anyway.
If I remember correctly, the Chrysler bailout was Reagan’s Achille’s heel … it was when his wonderous trickle-down theory got put to the test and failed miserably, so the government rushed in and propped them up. Arguably helping out one limping auto company, and putting it back on it’s feet in order for it to learn, grow and do better (hah! as if), is a vastly different proposition than what is happening today … when a whole industry which has been addicted to the crack cocaine of greed and the meth-amphetamines of hubris now needs government subsidies just like any crack whore in the projects.
Interesting though … it’s not actual drugs so it would seem that there’s nothing morally reprehensible about it and it’s not a failure on the part of these men. They just made some “poor decisions” and we need to help them out.
I think they need the same “tough love” they advocate for any drug addict. Cut ‘em off … take everything away … every last prop that they lean on, and let them make it on their own. No more enabling by anyone. We need a Civilian Conservation Corps for failed financial executives … let them work off their debt. Or would that be too much like debtors prison? I’m pretty angry about this, but I guess I’d stop short of that …