Financial crisis
Published Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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Stumble It!Financial crisis
Sept. 25, 2008
To the editor:
The era of abundant fossil fuels is over.
Individuals have responded by down-sizing autos and homes, thus the problem in the auto, housing and banking industries.
It is obvious to me that individuals make better decisions than industry or government.
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Even though this is a short letter - I would have to disagree on many levels...
First - there IS abundant fossil fuels available for the taking....the greens and congress just wont let us get to it!
Second - although increased fuel costs have influenced the consumer to buy more fuel efficient cars, the decline of the auto industry isn't world-wide...our auto industry is AFU because of the screwed-up unions and poor choices of the management...
Third - I would tend to disagree that the 'lack' of fossil fuels (even though every time I go to the pump I can get all I want) has anything to do with the housing or financial mess....more like the giving of loans to people who couldn't afford it by companies who were disingenuous at best when providing advice to the home buyer (zero down loans...please!)
akguy- you have valid points but the meat and potatos of the letter is that people have been making the changes to sustain in todays enviornment, at our own cost, and big buisness and government have not made the change with the market thus causing the problems of today. Short letter, too the point though.
When the author states that the era of abundant fossil fuels is over, that is correct, if you consider that oil cartels work with govt's to grab oil wells to keep them capped off (artificial scarcity).
I do like the authors praise of individual decision making over that of govt's.
Anyway, The Senate is going to vote on the Bankster bail out, even though the congress voted it down. The key issue about this bill is how much power it gives the banks and Treasury to further control our economy and govt. The 700 Billion is just there as a distraction. They can't call it "The Bankster Dictator Bill" openly.
They are scheduled to vote later today, so call today!
Senator Stevens
202-224-3004
Senator Murkowski
202-224-6665
Similar argument to that of the late 60's where in Japan responded with cars that were smaller and uglier than even the preceding English cars. Those too went the way of the do-do. concerned as you may be I would suggest you bulk up on protein and carbohydrates and keep your mountain bike as far off the road as possible because I have my Diesel trucks exhaust pipe custom aimed for the benefit of bicycle riders for noise and particulate intake.
no not really but I am sick of gloom and doom science that bases its opinions on that of the conventional wisdom that is propounded like that of colinary vantriquilism from the media whose factual basis is "it is writen so therefor it is true". figure that out.
Zane's Mom?
The following is an expanded copy of a letter I emailed to President Bush earlier today.
If you want voters to support a bailout you should change it so general taxpayers don't have to pay for it. Taxpayers didn't cause the problem. Greedy executives did. Greedy bankers were so anxious to get richer that they made loans they shouldn't have made.
Any bailout payment should take the form of negotiable federal securities rather than cash. The bailout program should be separate from the general budget.
Securities would be paid off by mortgage payments, sale of foreclosed homes etc. plus special taxes on business. One such tax could apply to money spent on executive salaries above some amount, for example $200,000 per year. The tax would be assessed even if the company not have a taxable income. Another tax could apply to certain financial transactions or upon the income of financial institutions, etc. A tax on short term capital gains would be appropriate. These taxes could be set to expire whenever sufficient funds were accumulated to pay off the securities.
This payment approach would force the people who caused the problem to pay to correct it. Those who tried to buy homes they couldn't really afford would pay part of the money for the bailout. Sale of the bad assets would convert them to cash to pay for the bailout. The companies that failed because of the credit crisis in some cases purchased bad assets from companies that remain profitable because they unloaded the bad assets they created. Thus it would be fair to force the companies that didn't fail to pay part of the cost of the bailout. High salaries by other companies forced the failed companies to pay higher salaries than they should have paid. Thus it would be fair to require all companies that pay high salaries to help pay for the bailout.
Only a small portion of the U.S. population caused the credit crisis. They shouldn't expect those who didn't contribute to the problem to bail them out. Creditors have been exploiting people for years by charging excessive interest and fees. Now that they are in trouble they want someone else to force those they have exploited to pay for their mistakes.
Hmmm. While I do agree with three of the four assertions I don't agree with the implied simplicity of the connections.
At least for oil we have reached and passed the point of peak production. This has many consequences including rising prices for oil.
Some individuals have responded by selecting less energy using vehicles and/or housing, which often translates into smaller. As energy prices rise and technology gets better this choice is more and more common.
I don't agree that this is the main problem bedeviling the auto, housing or banking industries. It is only a small fraction of their problems that mostly came about due to poor decisions.
The auto industry ignored the foreseeable shift to more energy efficient vehicles for too long and suffers from a competitive disadvantage with auto industries in other countries whose health care costs for their workers are covered by national health care schemes.
The housing industry has always been cyclical and those looking could have foreseen the overbuilding boom and predicted the following bust.
The banking industry actually isn't that bad, it is the newer, less regulated parts of the financial industry that have caused our current mess. Between the free market deregulation mantra of the Republicans and the predictable greed of Wall Street the problem was allowed to grow far too big without controls to prevent the perverse incentives that ended up threatening our entire financial industry.
Industry and government usually have the problem of having many different conflicting priorities. That makes it very hard to make decisions that satisfy most, let alone all of them. Having many different voices complicates the decision making problem. Individuals have a much simpler problem, but for all that many make poor decisions (examples include each prison inmate).
Speaking of Financial crisis why are DNM posters posting on or reading The Associated Press' articles?
Each time one is clicked on to be read or commented on the DNM makes money off us from the The Associated Press' articles as well as The Associated Press makes money.
Just wondering.... So many state they think DNM stinks or sucks or don't support DNM; doesn't make much sense if we click on them or comment on them & make them money.
I don't get it. Like the Great Flood of 2008 when the borough mayor was calling a disaster, I don't see a fiscal emergency for the Nation. The explanations from the Federal Government don't match the price tag. The bail out looks like a bad thing when it comes to the markets. Let the market sort out their credit problems and don't double the national debt with a pen stroke just to provide confidence in the market. As far as I can tell now is a good time to get into the market. Stocks are down, and that means it's time to buy. Just be careful and stay away from the securities and credit vendors.
WHY IS THERE NO ARTICLE IN TODAYS DNM ABOUT THE SENATES APPROVAL OF THE BAIL-OUT???
Yesterday evening there was an article on the vote, is this not important enough to maintain through even a 24 hour period??? What kind of BS is the DNM trying to pull, keeping us in the dark?
I want news, not stories like "Campaign comedy: Palin featured on late-night TV".
The editor of the DNM should be fired for this stunt.
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