Month: September 2008
-
Bailed Out or Posting Bail?
While we wait to see whether the revolt against the Big Bailout survives, we can take some comfort in reports that numerous financial institutions are being investigated by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for possible criminal violations in the practices that led the country to the current crisis. The latest parties to find…
-
The Strange-Bedfellows Uprising
The financial sector has contributed more than $300 million to federal candidates in this election cycle – split evenly between Democrats and Republicans – but it apparently was not enough. Today a motley coalition of free-market-loving right-wingers, fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and anti-corporate left-wingers came together to deliver a stunning rebuke to the Wall…
-
Will Pimco be the Blackwater of the Big Bailout?
If Congress approves the $700 billion bank bailout the Bush Administration is trying to force on the country through the threat of an economic mushroom cloud, the plan would not be carried out by career public servants. As in the war in Iraq, much of the grunt work would be contracted out to private companies.…
-
The Tainted Money Managers Who Might Run the Bailout
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson found little support for his $700 billion Wall Street bailout while testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, but the varied concerns expressed by committee members did not include Paulson’s plan to turn over implementation of the bailout to private asset managers. It would be a serious mistake for Congress…
-
The Dangers in Outsourcing the Bailout
A number of leading Democrats and Republicans expressed strong misgivings on Monday about the autocratic plan for bailing out Wall Street that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants to ram through Congress. It remains to be seen whether this is mere posturing or serious opposition. Critics are focusing on vital issues such as cost and oversight,…
-
Bailout Bonanza?
It appears that the Paulson-Bernanke juggernaut has prevailed, and Congress will quickly approve the most radical federal market intervention in U.S. history with few or no concessions from the financial institutions that created the mess. Meanwhile, President Bush is playing the shill in this $700 billion con game, telling the public yesterday “I believe, when…
-
Rescuing the Rest of Us
Bailing out individual companies such as AIG is one thing. Today’s newspapers are filled with astounding reports that the federal government is devising a plan to bail out the entire financial sector—by taking over all the toxic assets that pollute the balance sheets of banks and other institutions. There is talk that this scheme is…
-
AIG: Laissez-Faire R.I.P.
The federal government’s takeover of American International Group marks the end of three decades during which we have been made to worship at the altar of “free” markets and deregulation. The religion of unbridled capitalism is dead, replaced by a new theology of ad hoc intervention and selective lemon socialism. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and…
-
Lehman’s Bad Karma
The downfall of Lehman Brothers is bad news for its employees and shareholders, but it is difficult to avoid the feeling that, apart from the laws of the market, the law of karma may be at work as well. After all, Lehman was a firm built on a slave economy. It was founded as a…
-
“Ethical Failure” and Offshore Oil Drilling
The phrase repeatedly chanted at the recent Republican convention — “Drill, Baby, Drill” — now sounds pornographic in the wake of the new sex and money scandal involving oil drilling companies and the federal agency that is supposed to oversee them. The Interior Department’s Inspector General has just come out with allegations that more than…