Archive for the 'economy' Category
I Told You So, Part 2
So When Will banks Give Loans?
It was Oct. 17, just four days after JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, agreed to take a $25 billion capital injection courtesy of the United States government, when a JPMorgan employee asked that question. It came toward the end of an employee-only conference call that had been largely devoted [...]
Bailout or Handout?
From yesterday’s Times:
According to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the chief proponent of the big bank bailout, flooding the banks with taxpayers’ money was supposed to get them to start lending freely again. And that, in turn, was supposed to stabilize the markets and prevent the downturn from being worse than it otherwise would be.
It was [...]
ZOMG!!!1! OBAMA ADMITS HE’S A SOCIALIST!!!1!11!
SIKE! (h/t to TPM
Read More..>>Cannibal Credit Cards Crashing
Well gee, this is certainly a surprise:
After years of flooding Americans with credit card offers and sky-high credit lines, lenders are sharply curtailing both, just as an eroding economy squeezes consumers.
The pullback is affecting even creditworthy consumers and threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which [...]
“Spread the Wealth” Attacks Don’t Work
My conservative buddy sent me the following jpeg (click to enlarge):
Leaving aside for the time being the fact that this is a really bad photoshop job, this is simply an attack that won’t work.
First of all, as I mentioned to my pal, this notion that because Michelle Obama can afford a lobster dinner, [...]
Who Objects to Spreading Wealth Around (Other than the Very Very Rich)?
Over at the Drudge Report, the closeted angry gay man is flogging “proof” of Obama’s wealth-redistributing passion:
I have a question. Who, other than the very very rich (who’ve already benefited from the upward redistribution of wealth), objects to spreading the wealth?
Yesterday, for example, the New York Times published a long piece on [...]
Grinding My Teeth
I really really want to like Joe Biden and this article in the Times almost gets me there:
But life in Scranton was not always so easy for Joe Jr., who was born there on Nov. 20, 1942, the first child to Joe Sr. and Catherine Eugenia Finnegan, known to all as Jean.
Joey was a popular [...]
No One Could Have Seen This Coming
Gee, what a surprise: Banks Are Likely to Hold Tight to Bailout Money
The deepening red ink underscores a crucial question about the government’s plan: Will lenders deploy their new-found capital quickly, as the Treasury hopes, and unlock the flow of credit through the economy? Or will they hoard the money to protect themselves?
John A. Thain, [...]
I Am Part of the Problem
Via atrios, I discovered that I am part of the problem:
Retail sales fell off a cliff in September, plunging by the largest amount in three years as worried consumers shunned the malls and auto showrooms in the midst of the country’s financial meltdown.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday retail sales decreased 1.2 percent last month, nearly [...]
I Was Right
Like atrios, I was right.
Two weeks after persuading Congress to let it spend $700 billion to buy distressed securities tied to mortgages, the Bush administration has put that idea aside in favor of a new approach that would have the government inject capital directly into the nation’s banks — in effect, partially nationalizing the industry.
As [...]
