All Posts Tagged With: "bailouts"
Congress 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 | ContinuedCongress Pushes for Mortgage Aid
“House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Monday signed on to a proposal by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) that would channel $3 billion from the federal Troubled Assets Relief Program toward mortgage relief for jobless Americans. The measure would designate another $1 billion for a program that gives grants to state and local [...]
8Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedExpected Bailout Losses Adjusted
“The Obama administration is planning to slash its estimate of the losses from the government’s bailout package by about $200 billion, a source familiar with the matter said Sunday. “The White House had projected in August that the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, would lose about $341 billion over the next 10 [...]
7Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | Continued‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks Could Be Downsized
“An unusual alliance of conservatives and liberals is pushing to break up or downsize banks deemed “too big to fail,” rather than create a new regulatory regime led by the Federal Reserve to try to keep them from getting into trouble again.” (Washington Times, Monday) But still not allowed to fail. FEE Timely Classic: “Too [...]
9Nov2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedBen Bernanke Saved the Day?
Instead of being “brave,” Bernanke has been reckless, just like a young driver playing “chicken.” There is a huge difference between bravery and bravado, and Bernanke’s actions reflect the latter not the former.
28Oct2009 | William L. Anderson | 3 comments | ContinuedRoberts on Crony Capitalism
Here is an excellent attack on America’s crony capitalism by Russell Roberts, econ professor at George Mason, blogger at Cafe Hayek, podcast host extraordinaire (EconTalk), and former Freeman columnist.Question: What if all capitalism turns out to be crony capitalism? Have you ever heard the expression “crony free market.”
20Oct2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedWho's Watching the Fed? Not the Inspector General.
Scary stuff.
9Sep2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedIn the Grip of Madness
“Thank God we had the federal government last week to bail out the private sector!” That is what a rather statist friend of mine declared a year ago as the economy tanked, almost gleeful that the financial crisis seemed to be proving how much we all need a massive federal establishment to both regulate and [...]
19Aug2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 37 comments | ContinuedWhat Should Be Done?
From FEE on Vimeo. Western New England College, March 2009
14Apr2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedSo Where's the Credit Crunch?
President Obama “summoned” (the news media’s word) a dozen big bank CEOs to the White House for discussions about the economic crisis. At at brief news conference afterward, the CEOs were asked if they would change their banks’ behavior just because Obama asked them to lend more. The head of PNC Bank said he and [...]
27Mar2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedKirzner on Mises in WSJ
Ludwig von Mises via Israel Kirzner made the Wall Street Journal’s “Notable & Quotable” today: Economist Israel Kirzner writing on Ludwig von Mises in his 2001 book on the late Austrian economist:Mises is most emphatic in laying at the door of governmentally installed central banks the ultimate responsibility for the distortions (and eventually the depressions) [...]
26Mar2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTGIF: Crocodile Tears over AIG
If politicians spill any more crocodile tears over AIG, the EPA might have to declare Washington, D.C., a protected wetland. Sweep aside the phony expressions of “outrage” over AIG’s government-financed $165 million in bonuses (the information was in black and white) and ask yourself this: Who supplied the money? The rest of this week’s TGIF [...]
20Mar2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedAIG Takes Incoming
Everyone is in a fit over the bonuses paid to AIG’s employees. President Obama vows to find a legal way to get the money back. (The bonuses apparently are contractual obligations.)Well, well, well. Oh what a tangled web we sprout when first we practice to bail out.
17Mar2009 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedQuestions for Obama
Mr. President. During your press conference last night you made a few rather interesting comments that are worth following up on.1. You said: We stand to lose about $1 trillion worth of demand this year and another trillion next year. And what that means is you’ve got this gaping hole in the economy.Is this year’s [...]
10Feb2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | ContinuedNo More Czars, Please
Since America may be getting a Car Czar, this excerpt from the October 2004 issue of The Freeman seems particularly prescient: Excerpted from “No More Czars, Please” by Lawrence W. Reed Download PDF versionIn the land of the free, czardom has become a bipartisan fetish. Both major political parties have given us drug czars, energy [...]
11Dec2008 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | Continued-
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