The lack of political leadership

[BillsNYC]

Watching all politicians spin their wheels, I'm convinced that the market is its own monster that can't be controlled. It can only be fine tuned in small increments, but we're all along for the ride of high's and low's in the long run.

[DC Tom]

Leadership, well lets see, johnny mac wants chrissy cox fired(sec), Jim Bunning has introd legislation to strip the Fed of its bailout power and nancy girl said don't blame us here in congress. Sounds like business as usual from the d's and r's. Oh and the fed printed 40 billion yesterday causing a flight into gold. Reality TV at its finest.

 

Vote Mr. Mortgage for real economic leadership in Washington!!!

[John Adams]

Leadership, well lets see, johnny mac wants chrissy cox fired(sec), Jim Bunning has introd legislation to strip the Fed of its bailout power and nancy girl said don't blame us here in congress. Sounds like business as usual from the d's and r's. Oh and the fed printed 40 billion yesterday causing a flight into gold. Reality TV at its finest.

 

You left out the part that Congress is about to break until after the New Year. That's some leadership.

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

Well Bush told us last week the economy was just fine, and John McCain echoed that this week. So the leadership is telling us nothing to worry about. Everything is fine.

[GG]

Funny you should ask...

 

This Articlein today's WSJ sums up my attitude toward "deregulation".

 

More regulation is not necessarily needed, better regulation almost assuredly is needed. An overhaul of the regulatory system is needed, there would be less overall regulation, numerically, but it would be more streamlined.

 

In the securities world, you have the SEC, FINRA and various other entities.

 

The commodities world has the CFTC.

 

The banking world is a true mess, the Fed, OTS, State Agencies, OCC etc. all have jurisdictions over various banks.

 

The insurance world is state regulated.

 

The accounting world has FASB.

 

The overlap is significant, as are the areas that they miss, such as derivatives and hedge funds. So, you have heavy, overburdensome regulation in certain areas and the wild west in others.

 

If you had one, single, Federal regulator for financial products and institutions, you would have a more efficient, streamlined and effective regulator. This model has proved effective in Britan with the Financial Services Authority, although they still split out banking.

 

Hmm, I wonder if anyone here had advocated this before on these pages?

 

Paulson is taking the political leadership on this one, because it's apparent that neither aisle of Congress would have allowed the Bush administration to make such a major move 3 months before the election. Of course, no one was thinking that last weekend would turn into last weekend, either.

[erynthered]

You left out the part that Congress is about to break until after the New Year. That's some leadership.

 

 

Here's some leadership:

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do''

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=was...id=aVPBaUbYV_qQ

[bills_fan]

Paulson went for broke...released the story just as Congress was leaving!!!

 

Thats leadership.

 

Market is up 400 points right now on this news. Straight up. Now if Congress says they will do nothing, market will crash.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080918/wall_street.html

 

EDIT: Most importantly, MS/GS are turning green on my screen as we speak!

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

Here's some leadership:

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do''

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=was...id=aVPBaUbYV_qQ

the morons are running the show and that is both side of the aisles.

[/dev/null]

Here's some leadership:

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do''

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=was...id=aVPBaUbYV_qQ

 

At least he's being honest

[erynthered]

the morons are running the show and that is both side of the aisles.

 

You're right. The most ethical congress in the history of the good ol'USA with a 9% approval rating will save us.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Remember the S & L scandle... Guess what, my bet is that you are still paying today!

 

[bills_fan]

Schumer speaks!!

 

Schumer to announce a "new, comprehensive proposal for calming roiled Wall Street markets." He plans to make the announcement in a speech on the Senate floor around 3:15pm and will propose a "grand bargain" involving the creation of a new gov't agency modeled on the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the 1930s. The new RFC would provide capital to the banking industry in return for a USG equity stake in those companies. In return, Schumer's RFC would require the banks to agree to "judicial loan modifications allowing bankruptcy judges to facilitate the re-financing of mortgage loans." He will pitch this idea as an alternative to the proposals others have made (e.g., Rep. Barney Frank) that would be modeled on the Resolution Trust Corporation of the late 1980s and 1990s.

 

And ExiledinIllinois, RTC made money for the taxpayers.

[ExiledInIllinois]

What would you suggest the President do?

 

Lead, regulate... Did I say regulate... I meant PROMOTE regulation. How these Republican leaders think that these scumbag moneymen don't need to be regulated is beyond me.

 

And before one says Gov't is worse... Think about it really.

 

We are going back to the pre-1930's fellas and many can't remeber what scum existed in our country.

[erynthered]

Schumer speaks!!

 

Schumer to announce a "new, comprehensive proposal for calming roiled Wall Street markets." He plans to make the announcement in a speech on the Senate floor around 3:15pm and will propose a "grand bargain" involving the creation of a new gov't agency modeled on the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the 1930s. The new RFC would provide capital to the banking industry in return for a USG equity stake in those companies. In return, Schumer's RFC would require the banks to agree to "judicial loan modifications allowing bankruptcy judges to facilitate the re-financing of mortgage loans." He will pitch this idea as an alternative to the proposals others have made (e.g., Rep. Barney Frank) that would be modeled on the Resolution Trust Corporation of the late 1980s and 1990s.

 

And ExiledinIllinois, RTC made money for the taxpayers.

 

Yeah. I just read that. Schummer did such a good job with IndyMac, he wont !@#$ this up. Naaaa.

[DC Tom]

Schumer speaks!!

 

Schumer to announce a "new, comprehensive proposal for calming roiled Wall Street markets." He plans to make the announcement in a speech on the Senate floor around 3:15pm and will propose a "grand bargain" involving the creation of a new gov't agency modeled on the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the 1930s. The new RFC would provide capital to the banking industry in return for a USG equity stake in those companies. In return, Schumer's RFC would require the banks to agree to "judicial loan modifications allowing bankruptcy judges to facilitate the re-financing of mortgage loans." He will pitch this idea as an alternative to the proposals others have made (e.g., Rep. Barney Frank) that would be modeled on the Resolution Trust Corporation of the late 1980s and 1990s.

 

And ExiledinIllinois, RTC made money for the taxpayers.

 

Spectacular. Recycling old ideas that they probably don't even understand anyway.

[YellowLinesandArmadillos]

Spectacular. Recycling old ideas that they probably don't even understand anyway.

No but some wiz kid lawyer staffer does and he knows how to write the legislation. Probably already had a draft in the hopper ready for the right moment. Wouldn't doubt if there were a couple of wall street types that were consulted behind the scenes to look for any red flags and Schumer would have insisted on it.

[bills_fan]

Yeah. I just read that. Schummer did such a good job with IndyMac, he wont !@#$ this up. Naaaa.

 

 

Either proposal, Schumer's or RTC II, puts a floor under the problem. The banks can put their bad debt somewhere and break out of the death spiral they were in. The govt will take the debt for nickles and dimes on the dollar. The gov't will then sell off the debt over time. Since it really is worth far more than the gov't will pay, the gov't will make money on the deal, just like RTC I.

 

If any entity had a big enough balance sheet, they could do the same thing. No one does, due to the scope of the problem.

 

And the gov't didn't !@#$ up the original RTC. Many of the players for that (Robert Glauber, William Kroner, Volker) are still around. Reassemble the old gang and let them have at it again. They did a fantastic job last time.

[erynthered]

Either proposal, Schumer's or RTC II, puts a floor under the problem. The banks can put their bad debt somewhere and break out of the death spiral they were in. The govt will take the debt for nickles and dimes on the dollar. The gov't will then sell off the debt over time. Since it really is worth far more than the gov't will pay, the gov't will make money on the deal, just like RTC I.

 

If any entity had a big enough balance sheet, they could do the same thing. No one does, due to the scope of the problem.

 

And the gov't didn't !@#$ up the original RTC. Many of the players for that (Robert Glauber, William Kroener, Volker) are still around. Reassemble the old gang and let them have at it again. They did a fantastic job last time.

 

OK. Up 400. It brought some confedence to the floor I see.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080918/wall_street.html?.v=44

[bills_fan]

OK. Up 400. It brought some confedence to the floor I see.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080918/wall_street.html?.v=44

 

 

Confidence...it will solve the problem. It will set a floor (however low it does not matter) and the panicky death spiral is over. At this rate, MS would have gone bankrupt or been sold over the weekend. GS two weeks later. State Street the week thereafter.

 

The ratings agencies (most evil entities on earth, IMHO) have effectively been neutralized. The drove the final nail in the AIG coffin, after of course, helping to build the coffin.

 

If you really want to learn more, I linked an article about the agencies below. That site, BTW, is a terrific site for market information and one I visit daily.

 

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/GS-MCO...y/index/a/19056

[GG]

Either proposal, Schumer's or RTC II, puts a floor under the problem. The banks can put their bad debt somewhere and break out of the death spiral they were in. The govt will take the debt for nickles and dimes on the dollar. The gov't will then sell off the debt over time. Since it really is worth far more than the gov't will pay, the gov't will make money on the deal, just like RTC I.

 

If any entity had a big enough balance sheet, they could do the same thing. No one does, due to the scope of the problem.

 

And the gov't didn't !@#$ up the original RTC. Many of the players for that (Robert Glauber, William Kroener, Volker) are still around. Reassemble the old gang and let them have at it again. They did a fantastic job last time.

 

I guess not all government intervention is bad