Rep. Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .
“The sun will come out tomorrow,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, “but only if Congress takes action now to eliminate uncertainty.”
Conservatives in Congress immediately expressed reluctance to support the Mandatory Sunrise Act, noting that government intervention is unlikely to have the intended effect, and could produce many unintended, and unpredictable consequences.
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.Read the entire article.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."
But why $700 billion? Why not $500 billion? Or $1 trillion? And why hasn’t anyone explained that price tag?
No one seems to know.
The number is even more confusing given that one of the reasons the U.S. financial system needs bailing out is because no one knows the value of the securities that $700 billion is earmarked for purchasing.
One thing everyone (economists and market participants) agrees on, though: $1 trillion would have been too scary, frightening taxpayers and Congressman alike with the prospect of a bailout of that size. (It turns out $700 billion was too scary, as well. Congress rejected a first draft of the proposal on Monday, sending stock markets plunging.)
And $500 billion might not have been enough purchasing power at a given moment. (The language in the bill says $700 billion "outstanding at any one time.") Congress didn’t want to have to go back to the taxpayers and ask for more if $500 billion had turned out not to be enough.
So $700 billion was just right.
I'd include most of the Republican members of congress, too. But it's still the best use of our money in controlling energy prices that the government could participate in.MAYBE THE quickest way to lower oil and gas prices would be this: Immediately enroll every Democratic member of Congress in an entry-level economics class.
The lack of even a basic grasp of economic concepts has led Democrats to oppose sensible policies that would begin to lower oil and gas prices. Instead, they push hair-brained ideas that make no sense.
If the government can just turn a dial and stimulate the economy, why doesn't it do it all the time?Of course we (and he) knows why. They have to get those quarters from us. And by the time we get them back, they seem to be a little lighter than they were when we sent them to DC.
Why doesn't it just keep cranking quarters into the vibrating bed that is our economy and just keep it going?
The nation’s chief executive will reportedly tell the American people that the government got involved in the U.S. economy under false pretenses, has mismanaged the effort from the beginning, and the president believes now that “the only way forward is backward.”Wow. Some sense out of Washington.
The president will propose immediate reductions in taxes, regulation, government spending and federal bureaucracies.If only...
