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6826 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 7, 2008, at 3:21 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Where are you getting this certainty of doom? > > You really think that TARP has now saved us from "everything going > under" ...? No. Reduced to bullet points: * Risks of a really nasty outcome are high. * "Something" should be done about it. * Given the current configuration of Congress and the Oval Office, the modified Paulson plan was the best something we're likely to get. * Assuming Congress and the OO are a ...

Document Size:	5492
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 12:37:30 PDT 2008

6827 [lbo-talk] impact of VP debate: better for Biden, actually -- rank: 1000

[Is "good" some sort of Christian code-word? I've noticed that Bush likes it too.] <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/984/palin-biden-debate> Post-Debate: Palin Still Seen as Unqualified, a Bump for Biden October 6, 2008 While last week's vice-presidential debate had a larger audience than any other in history, voters' impressions of Sarah Palin have changed little. A special re-interview this weekend of voters who had first been polled a week ago found that most (55%) continue to ...

Document Size:	9476
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 12:20:33 PDT 2008

6828 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 7, 2008, at 4:02 PM, John Thornton wrote: > I was surprised to see Krugman pronounce it a failure immediately > especially after he endorsed it 5 days ago. > I think he doesn't know his own mind on the matter. If a Dem had proposed it, he'd be for it. Doug

Document Size:	4903
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 12:17:24 PDT 2008

6829 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 3:56 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > it won't work Who knows? It's odd to see someone as sophisticated as Krugman pronounce it a failure less than a week after passage without the Treasury having bought a single asset. > it avoids addressing the underlying problem What's the underlying problem? If it's lots of bad assets on bank balance sheets, the program will address that directly. if it's renegotiating the underlying mortgages, that's going to happen, though it'll ...

Document Size:	6310
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 11:52:19 PDT 2008

6830 [lbo-talk] the real McCain -- rank: 1000

Rolling Stone hit on the hotheaded, incompetent beneficiary of major nepotism: <http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print >

Document Size:	4822
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 11:01:04 PDT 2008

6831 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 7, 2008, at 2:51 AM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Doug asks: > >> You want to drive the unemployment rate to 12% or more? > > U6 says it's already 11% :-) Yup. So you want to drive U6 to 18%? Doug

Document Size:	4823
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 7 08:35:09 PDT 2008

6832 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 4:10 PM, Mark Bennett wrote: > I ask seriously: if financial capitalism is about to > blow itself up, why would any leftist want to stop it from doing so? > Because it will cause the working class pain? Yeah. You want to drive the unemployment rate to 12% or more? With no left at all with even a pretense of picking up the pieces? That's not politics - it's nihilism. Doug

Document Size:	4992
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 20:18:14 PDT 2008

6833 [lbo-talk] Pope says financial crisis shows money an illusion -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 5:41 PM, uvj at vsnl.com wrote: > Pope says financial crisis shows money an illusion But the Virgin Birth is real? Doug

Document Size:	4895
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 18:20:39 PDT 2008

6834 [lbo-talk] Discussing the Crisis/Bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 5:31 PM, Gar Lipow wrote: > This > is an empirical argument and to make sense has to falsifiable by an > empirical test. How bad can things get before the facts refute the > idea that this was better than nothing. It can just be a matter of > faith - no matter how bad the turn the economy takes this week, it is > still better than would have happened without it. We just don't know. There's no counterfactual available, nor are there any modern instances of l ...

Document Size:	5455
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 18:05:41 PDT 2008

6835 [lbo-talk] Report on killings during Katrina in New Orleans -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 6:14 PM, Mr. X wrote: > This is crap. And its stuff like this that gives the Left a bad rep. > Show us the bodies! Mitch thinks Dick Cheney was behing 9/11, too. Doug

Document Size:	4960
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 18:03:09 PDT 2008

6836 [lbo-talk] Financial Eugenics: The Paulson Plan for Survivor Bias -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 3:34 PM, Ira Glazer quoted: > America is now a centrally planned economy To quote a friend, don't your crazy bells go off when you hear something that crazy? Doug

Document Size:	5006
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 12:43:25 PDT 2008

6837 [lbo-talk] Gallup polls the bailout -- rank: 1000

<http://www.gallup.com/poll/110977/US-Financial-Rescue-Plan-Wins-Slim-Public-Support.aspx > U.S. Financial Rescue Plan Wins Slim Public Support Republicans and Democrats mostly agree passage was a good thing by Lydia Saad PRINCETON, NJ -- More Americans consider it a "good thing" that Congress passed a financial rescue package for U.S. financial institutions last week than call it a "bad thing," but only by a narrow 9 percentage-point margin, 50% to 41%. Another 9% h ...

Document Size:	7316
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 12:40:31 PDT 2008

6838 [lbo-talk] Bush approval hits 27% -- rank: 1000

<http://www.gallup.com/poll/110980/Bush-Job-Approval-25-Lowest-Yet.aspx> Bush Job Approval at 25%, His Lowest Yet Only 3 points above the lowest in Gallup Poll history by Frank Newport PRINCETON, NJ -- President Bush's job approval rating is at 25% in the latest Oct. 3-5 Gallup Poll, the lowest of the Bush administration, and only three percentage points above the lowest presidential approval rating in Gallup Poll history. ...

Document Size:	5142
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 12:25:22 PDT 2008

6839 [lbo-talk] question for those opposed to the bailout -- rank: 1000

On Oct 6, 2008, at 12:27 AM, Gar Lipow wrote: > It will really be interesting to note over the next few days whether > this bailout gives major institutions the confidence to start short > term lending again. This is not the best-designed bailout in the history of bailouts - though a piece in today's FT says the language is broad enough to give the Treasury broad discretion, and it is likely to use that discretion to pursue the better strategy of direct recapitalizations. But in any ...

Document Size:	5321
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 09:50:34 PDT 2008

6840 [lbo-talk] change we can believe in -- rank: 1000

[Bloomberg's Matthew Benjamin, via The Note] "Obama has made it clear he would rely on former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for advice in his choice. Rubin, according to people who have spoken with him, would have a short list of recommendations that includes New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Roger Altman, a Wall Street investment banker and former deputy Treasury secretary."

Document Size:	5095
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Oct 6 09:31:05 PDT 2008