All Posts Tagged With: "bailouts"
The First Government Bailouts: The Story of the RFC
The idea of using federal money to bail out large failing corporations did not begin with the Bush administration. In the beginning was the RFC, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which President Herbert Hoover pretentiously named and bountifully funded during the Great Depression to bail out corporations deemed too big to fail. In 1932 Congress gave [...]
30Nov2011 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedFed Secretly Bails Out Big Banks
From Bloomberg: Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so [...]
29Nov2011 | Sheldon Richman | 23 comments | ContinuedThe Importance of Failure
In today’s society failure has become something to fear, avoid, and therefore prevent at all costs. Whether it is unemployment compensation, farm subsidies, or bailouts for failing companies, the world seems to view failure as having no redeeming social value. If success is all good and failure is all bad, then it seems as though [...]
26Oct2011 | and Steven Horwitz | 11 comments | ContinuedThe New Fed
“Things are seldom what they seem.” —W. S. Gilbert, “H.M.S. Pinafore” Nowhere is this more true than in government, which means we have to watch it closely. Unfortunately preconceived notions can make us impervious to events right in front of us and lead us to colossal misperceptions. Take the Federal Reserve System. (All together now: [...]
21Sep2011 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedPrivate Investment and Public “Investment”
Politicians are fond of telling the public that we must “invest” in this program or that—be it education; health care; make-work infrastructure projects like the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”; $50 million for an indoor rainforest in Iowa; $3.4 million for a tunnel to allow turtles to cross under a highway in Florida; $1.8 million for swine [...]
22Jun2011 | Adam B. Summers | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Taxpayers Won’t Benefit
Why does everyone say the taxpayers will be winners when the banks, AIG, and GM repay their TARP and other bailout money with interest? The taxpayers won’t see a dime! I doubt if any money will even go toward reducing the debt. The only real winners will be the politicians and their anointed beneficiaries. Our [...]
15Dec2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedOf Football Helmets and Bailouts
Attempts to reduce risk can themselves create it; correctly pricing risk is crucial to keeping an economy healthy.
21Oct2010 | Steven Horwitz | 23 comments | ContinuedFinancial Regulation Snake Oil
Recent turmoil set off by the threat of Greek insolvency shows how fast markets change. Fear about the inability of European governments to pay their debts caused the 2010 turbulence. By contrast, the 2008–2009 havoc was rooted in the collapse of property values. The next crisis will be about something else, possibly another government’s debt. [...]
25Aug2010 | Chidem Kurdas | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Case for Big Government
Could it be that our already immense government is still too small? That’s what some people, including economic journalist Jeff Madrick, would have us believe. The first sentence of The Case for Big Government reads, “It is conventional wisdom in America today that high levels of taxes and government spending diminish America’s prosperity.” While this [...]
20May2010 | Robert Batemarco | 1 comment | ContinuedMr. Obama and the Bankers: “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly”
Speaking to a very receptive Elyria, Ohio, crowd a few months ago, President Obama took off the gloves and promised that he was ready to fight to provide more jobs, improved education, and security from the threat of bankruptcy for homeowners. Turning his attention to the Wall Street bankers, who had just announced another round [...]
20Apr2010 | Bruce Yandle | 1 comment | ContinuedLet’s Take the “Crony” Out of “Crony Capitalism”
When Judge Richard Posner, the prolific conservative intellectual, released his book A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent Into Depression last year, you might have thought the final verdict was in: Capitalism caused the economic downturn and high unemployment. That this verdict was pronounced by someone like Posner, who is associated [...]
24Mar2010 | John Stossel | 4 comments | ContinuedHouse Passes Mini-Stimulus
“The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $155 billion measure that seeks to create jobs and blunt the impact of the worst recession since the 1930s. By a vote of 217 to 212, the House approved additional spending for ‘shovel-ready’ construction projects and money to avoid layoffs of teachers, police and other public [...]
17Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 1 comment | ContinuedPresident Obama Urges Banks to Lend
“President Obama exhorted the nation’s biggest banks on Monday to make ‘extraordinary’ efforts to increase lending, even as some of those firms are racing to distance themselves from government control.” (Washington Post, Tuesday) This makes perfect sense. If banks don’t engage in risky lending again, how ever will the government be able continue “rescuing” them. [...]
15Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedCitigroup to Repay $20 Billion
“Citigroup said Monday that it had reached an agreement to wean itself from the government bailout by the end of 2010, beginning with the repayment of $20 billion in federal aid. “The deal is the latest sign that both banks and the government are eager to end an extraordinary period of federal support for the [...]
14Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedCongress Passes $1 Trillion Stimulus Spending Bill
“The Senate on Sunday sent President Obama another hot potato, passing a $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill that includes money needed to run dozens of government agencies but also is loaded with pork-barrel spending. “The bill, which funds most domestic federal agencies for the rest of this fiscal year, marks a 12 percent spending increase. [...]
14Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedBad Lending Still a Problem
“The trouble signs surrounding Lend America had been building for years … Home loans made by its headquarters were defaulting at an extremely high rate … Yet despite these red flags, a little-known federal agency continued giving its blessing to Lend America, allowing it to do business in the name of the U.S. government. The [...]
10Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedObama: We Must Spend Our Way Out of This Recession
“President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to ‘spend our way out of this recession’ until more Americans are back at work. “Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small [...]
9Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 4 comments | Continued-
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