Via Sprung, here's Roubini on nationalization: "Six months from now even firms that today look solvent are going to look insolvent. Most of the major banks -- almost all of them -- are going to look insolvent. In which case, if you take them all over all at once, you cause less damage than if you would if you took over a couple now, and created so much confusion and panic and nervousness.
- atrios on nationalization: It isn't about taking over the banking system permanently, it's about wiping out the shareholders, temporarily taking control, and either selling off the assets or selling what's left to another entity.
- TPM reader JP ... Please stop using the highly inaccurate term "nationalization" which connotes permanent government takeover of the banks. The correct term is receivership, which is by definition temporary and a routine staple of our capitalist economy and banking regulatory system. Using the term nationalization plays into the propaganda of the far right.
Kevin Drum: Beirut probably isn't the first place that comes to mind. But it turns out that back when Wall Street was running wild, Lebanon's central banker, Riad Toufic Salame, was busy keeping his country's banks some of the safest in the world.
atrios can't top crying for the poor disadvantaged bushies: Only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded, estimated Eric Vautour, a Washington recruiter at Russell Reynolds Associates Inc. That "is much, much worse" than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House, he said. Paul Krugman adds: But it appears that wingnut welfare is breaking down when it comes to former Bush officials. Is this the beginning of the end for movement conservatism?
- A bonus by any other name. Chris in Paris: Morgan Stanley & Citi to pay $3 BILLION to retain brokers. ... Since the Wall Street worshipers love talking so much about socialism, fine, let's talk about it. Let Rick Santelli walk Main Street and see how his silly rants fly with Americans who aren't traders and banksters.
- Devilstower on UBS and Phill Gramm: Swiss bank accounts. Just the term brings with it a mysterious, dangerous air. A place for shadowy assassins to pick up their pay. International agents collecting on acts of extortion. Dusty hordes of Nazi treasure. However, Swiss giant UBS has admitted to something just as illegal, and a good deal more tawdry. They have been using their operations in the US to lure wealthy Americans into plopping their millions into UBS accounts, where they can evade taxes. ... Ladies and gentlemen, Phil Gramm. Exemplar of Republican economic policy and the author of our economy. If leaders are so completely responsible for corporate success that they deserve all the credit (and money) when a company succeeds, does the same apply when they are abject failures? If so, UBS should send Gramm the bill for leading their investment wing into massive losses.
Benen on stoopid Repuglican talking points: Didn't we already have this debate? Isn't it already clear that the conservative talking points were wrong in October, and haven't improved with age? I suspect most of these conservative media personalities know their arguments are wrong, but haven't quite come up with anything new yet. So, they recycle the old talking points, discredited though they may be.
- Josh has a Deep Thought!
- Robert Reich on The New Deal and the New New Deal: Countering Conservative Claptrap
The stock market reached a six-year low today. Why? Some blame loose talk (including that of former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan) about nationalizing the nation's banks. Others blame Obama's new plan for helping homeowners who may not be able to pay their mortgages. But the real culprit is the accelerating decline in aggregate demand -- consumers, businesses, and exports. Companies are losing money because their customers are disappearing. That's precisely why the stimulus is so important -- indeed, why many of us fear it's too small.
brownsox finds epic NRCC fail in an anti-stimulus ad in MI: Amid the smoking cessation and STD prevention programs the NRCC cites as evidence of Peters irresponsibility come "$1 Billion for Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee Program" and "$600 Million for cars for government employees." The fact that Michigan lawmakers of both parties pushed for the advanced battery funding apparently didn't occur to the NRCC. Nor did the fact that those cars for government employees would be build by Michigan-based manufacturers.
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