All Posts Tagged With: "TARP"

Political Bankruptcies: How Chrysler and GM Have Changed the Rules of the Game

The topic of corporate bankruptcy law scarcely titillates the imagination of ordinary citizens, even those with a deep interest in constitutional and public affairs. Harried people treat bankruptcy almost dismissively as a useful way of winding up firms that cannot keep their financial heads above water. In practice they sense rightly that the corporate bankruptcy [...]

18Nov2009 | Richard A. Epstein | 1 comment | Continued

Transforming America: The Bush-Obama Stimulus Programs

George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s “stimulus” programs will permanently transform the American economy. The market-based system that has produced unprecedented prosperity relies on profit and loss, which rewards individuals and firms that add value to the economy and penalizes those that detract value. The various stimulus programs undermine that system.
My discussion will focus on [...]

19Aug2009 | Randall G. Holcombe | 3 comments | Continued

Too Big to Fail

“Once you lose your freedom to fail, you also lose your freedom to succeed and you cease to be a free society.” —U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas
In March 2008 the investment banking firm Bear Sterns failed and the federal government quickly stepped in. The public was inundated with the phrase “too big to fail” (TBTF) [...]

2Mar2009 | Michael Heberling | 4 comments | Continued

The Financial Bailouts: “See the Needle and the Damage Done”

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, according to the New York Times, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke used “a speaker phone from his ornate office” to tell Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “that it was time to adopt a comprehensive strategy that Congress would have to approve” for dealing with the financial-market troubles. After a second call on [...]

27Feb2009 | Lawrence H. White | 8 comments | Continued

Theory and Crisis

What might be even more distressing than the current buildup of the corporate state in response to the supposed economic crisis is the way some self-styled advocates of the free market are willing to cast aside the economic theory they once claimed to embrace.
If you are a glutton for cable news-talk shows, you know it’s [...]

20Jan2009 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | Continued