The Original Bill

Sep 25, 2008 10:15

Linked from Planet MoneyThe legislation is pretty concise, but involves a HUGE, unprecedented transfer of power to the Treasury Secretary. His actions are then "non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency", only reporting to Congress twice a year ( Read more... )

you fucking liar, what the fuck ever, npr

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seanorange September 26 2008, 03:46:16 UTC
I've never understood why "tax and spend" is a slur. Isn't spending what you're supposed to do with taxes?

It's not that the mortgages don't have value, it's those complicated mortgage security bundles that have an unknown value. Some of them are good and some of them aren't. The reason there's uncertainty is that they were all fraudulently marked as AAA super-safe investments, when they'd been lowering and lowering and lowering the standards but kept using the same computer models for their actual AAA loans. So the result is that they don't know which of those mortgages in the bundle were actually good investments because in many cases they don't know who owns them any more.

This is why I'm not surprised that they can't find their way out of a paper bag now -- they couldn't before, why change the habit of a lifetime? That's also why I think that any company taking Federal money has to behave as if they're filing for bankruptcy -- one of those steps is to get the chuckleheads out and have new management try to recoup all of their assets and then start settling debts.

~Sean

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aremisasling September 26 2008, 04:09:07 UTC
Sounds like a plan I could support. But then the current fed chairman used to be one of those chuckleheads and is still friends with most of them so how will that work?

Meep

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seanorange September 26 2008, 13:03:23 UTC
Hullo conflict of interest! Which Congress voted him in? (Is the Treasury Secretary even approved by Congress?) They knew about Paulson's ties to Goldman-Sachs, but it apparently didn't seem to bother them. Now it's coming around to bite them in the ass.

So when I hear that they want to bring the bill to Paulson for approval, what they're really saying is, "does this meet the approval of the guys you're trying to help out? Are they going to donate to my campaign next year?"

~Sean

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aremisasling September 26 2008, 13:20:06 UTC
So.... They're taking a bill inspired by Paulson... which would give Paulson almost unchecked power over perhaps the largest sum of money ever distributed in a government program... a sum of money destined for the pockets of his best friends and former colleagues... And they're asking for his approval?

Hey Adolf, is it alright if we give you Poland? Oh, only if you get the Sudetenland? Sounds good adolf. Talk to ya later.

The wolves aren't watching the henhouse, they're distributing the chickens amongst their friends with full approval from the farmer.

Meep

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