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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / And The Informed Take On This Is?

And The Informed Take On This Is?

by John Cole|  April 21, 20095:40 pm| 38 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?

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Previous Post: « How Does He Get Away With It?
Next Post: Harman’s Mess and DiFi’s Largesse »

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    April 21, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    Tomorrow’s discussion of ppip may be more interesting.

  2. 2.

    JL

    April 21, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    OT The Washington Post has a breaking news alert
    Prosecutors Mull Dropping Spy Charges Against Ex-AIPAC Lobbyists

  3. 3.

    srv

    April 21, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    They can’t go back for more money yet, so they’re trying to think of another way to use the existing money/investment to unfreeze things.

    It won’t work, and we’ll just be a lower creditor. We’ll be on the 5th or 6th rationalization for the economic policies within a week or so.

    And, as always, someone needs to bitchslap the Goldman Sachs execs. Not satisfied with raping us repeatedly, they are considering a Blood Angel on the US market.

  4. 4.

    sparky

    April 21, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    having looked at the link but not listened, the only thing i would take away is that the administration has figured out that it needs to say soothing words to the general public (yes! we care about you, too! really!) as well as the ibankers. otherwise, it’s just a placeholder response. note that he was careful to not say anything about which banks needed more money. same song, better suit.

  5. 5.

    Zifnab

    April 21, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    What should we take away from this?

    The Obama Depression is all Geithner’s fault! This never would have happened if we’d elected McCain. The fundamentals of our economy would have been strong.

  6. 6.

    blogenfreude

    April 21, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    The takeaway is that nobody has a fucking clue what to do next.

  7. 7.

    Zifnab

    April 21, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    @srv:

    Not satisfied with raping us repeatedly, they are considering a Blood Angel on the US market.

    A whatty what?

  8. 8.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 21, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    The short of it is that printing money and giving it to giant banks, investment firms and multinational insurance companies with little or no oversight was a really bad idea. (This is called “mixed results”.)

    So we’re still in the same place we were a year ago with all the same problems and with more new fresh problems on the way and we’re gonna print up more money and throw it away again.

    Because the alternative – socia1ism – is much much worse.

  9. 9.

    HyperIon

    April 21, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    @blogenfreude: Yes!

    but of course, no one can actually say that…except on the intertubes.

  10. 10.

    srv

    April 21, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    @Zifnab: Er, I meant a Blood Eagle.

  11. 11.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 21, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    When these hearings are held, Geithner’s Chief of Staff, the lobbyist from Goldman Sachs, should be the one to be given the microphone. He is probably more articulate than Geithner. This way, you see, it will be more articulately explained how Treasury’s ten staffers will police the $3 trillion being given to the banking system.

    Because we want to be sure than none of the $3 trillion gets into the hands of parties, that, you know, might have some dirt on the President.

    The Goldman Sachs lobbyist in charge at Treasury can also articulately explain how the 95% of Americans that are getting tax cuts will have those tax cuts wiped out hundreds, or thousands of times over, by deflating the currency.

  12. 12.

    Zifnab

    April 21, 2009 at 6:32 pm

    @srv: See previous comment.

  13. 13.

    rob

    April 21, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    Same old crap. Banks have a death grip on credit, which I don’t blame them – 6 million plus Americans are not employed or underemployed, why lend? Let’s just call 2009 a clusterfuck- bring on 2010..

  14. 14.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    April 21, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    Geithner still seems to be saying that the entire financial system is being propped up by papier mache finger puppets and the little yellow duckie Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell use as a sex toy while bathing together. At least that’s what I heard him say. I could be wrong, but what the hell, I’m not a Republican so I can’t just make shit up and hope it’s true.

  15. 15.

    srv

    April 21, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    @Zifnab: You missed the last BJ meme I guess:

    https://balloon-juice.com/?p=20212

    DougJ upset some of the more faint hearted. Sometimes you just need to keep walking.

    p.s. Goldman wants to pay back TARP now, and take advantage of the fact that the others can’t. That way, they clean up and drive them all out of business faster

  16. 16.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 21, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Bank A buys the crap assets from Bank B at made-up prices using public/private partnership money.
    Bank B buys the crap assets from Bank A at made-up prices using public/private partnership money.
    Lather, rinse, repeat.
    Profit!

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    April 21, 2009 at 6:46 pm

    Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?

    We’re screwed?

    From BBC News (Meltdown losses of ‘$4 trillion’ )

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned credit crunch losses could reach $4 trillion (£2.75tn), damaging the financial system for years to come. It says that even if urgent action is taken to clean up the banking system, the process will be “slow and painful”, delaying economic recovery. Banks may need $1.7 trillion in additional capital, the IMF forecasts.

    On the plus side, the bad economic news distracts us from huge looming problems in Pakistan (Swat’s Taleban expand operations )

    Taleban militants operating in Pakistan’s Swat region who agreed a peace deal with the government have expanded operations into nearby Buner. Dozens of militants have been streaming into bordering Buner to take over mosques and government offices. …Buner district is only about 100km (62 miles) from the capital, Islamabad….Recent reports said the Taleban had ransacked the offices of international aid and development agencies working in Buner….The Taleban have banned the playing of music in cars and are also using mosques to invite local youth to join them.

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    April 21, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    It says that even if urgent action is taken to clean up the banking system, the process will be “slow and painful”, delaying economic recovery.

    Obviously the solution is to reintroduce slavery and indentured servitude!

    Tax cut, bitches!

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    April 21, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    I have the overwhelming desire to use the word “asymptotic” in a conversation.

  20. 20.

    srv

    April 21, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    @Corner Stone: Please do. I can’t remember the difference between totic and topic.

  21. 21.

    Olliander

    April 21, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    The report also warned that the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program has evolved into a $3 trillion effort of “unprecedented scope, scale and complexity” and comes with too little oversight and too little information about what companies are doing with the taxpayer money they are getting. “The American people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used,” wrote Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general assigned to monitor the bailout program, in his second report to Congress.

    Adjusted for clarity. The sheer enormity of this boggles the mind. I don’t doubt that Geithner is an intelligent person, but he is a stooge for Wall Street. In the entire Administration, he’s been tied to this debacle the longest, having been at the NY Fed while the system began to splinter over two years ago. He’s to entrenched in Wall Street culture.

    This is a Ponzi scheme of gigantic proportions—a tax-payer funded shell game. None of the root causes of this mess will even remotely be corrected until AIG is addressed (which is tied to the other banks balance sheets) and until the ratings agency scam is brought down. I don’t even see that talked about.

    Even so, none of this addresses the imminent collapse of the commercial real estate market, or the next wave of ARM resets on the horizon.

  22. 22.

    srv

    April 21, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    @Brachiator: I wonder if the public will get to talk about troops (in a major way) in Pakistan before it happens.

    Obama is going to have to kill millions if he wants to “win” this war. Maybe it’s exactly what we need, as long as we can get enough wingnuts to be the fodder.

  23. 23.

    MikeL

    April 21, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    I know, not really related to the topic. But this has to go somewhere.

    “Lonegan’s campaign is charging $1,000 for a private meeting with the one-time plumber and the candidate. ”

    Yes, you too can meet Joe, the average guy concerned about socialism. For a mere paltry $1000.

  24. 24.

    MikeL

    April 21, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    The link got eaten somehow.

    http://www.wcbs880.com/Joe-the-Plumber-Stumping-for-Lonegan/4241666

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    April 21, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    @srv:

    I wonder if the public will get to talk about troops (in a major way) in Pakistan before it happens.

    The worst thing in the world would be for the US to send troops to Pakistan. The second worst thing in the world would be for Pakistan to collapse into another failed state.

    It seems like only yesterday when the neo-cons were assuring everyone that if we invaded Iraq, soon stable democracies would be blooming all over the region. Such rosy optimism.

    But a Taliban dominated Pakistan would be a nightmare, and would make Al Queda activities in the region look mild by comparison. The Taliban would be crazy enough to try to take on India over Kashmir and other regions.

    And both Pakistan and India have nukes.

  26. 26.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 21, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    @Brachiator:
    I wondered at the time whether the Pakistani government had lost their minds in practically ceding the Swat valley to the Taleban. It seemed to be begging for more expansion by the Taleban with the result that Pakistan will once more undergo a coup d’etat by the military. There are two possible outcomes in Pakistan right now: bad, and worse.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Desert Hussein Rat

    April 21, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    Shorter Tim Geithner: I failed.

    EDIT:
    Slightly Longer Tim Geithner:
    I Can Haz Guvmint Pension Now, Pleez?

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    April 21, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?

    Brush up on “How to Serve Man”.

  29. 29.

    Bill Arnold

    April 21, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?

    That Geithner needs speech lessons. Though he got through the second half without missing syllables.
    That the banking system is being held together with bubble gum, duct tape, and sheer force of will, but it is holding.

  30. 30.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 21, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    What should we take away?
    I don’t think that “we” will be the ones taking anything away. “They” on the other hand, will be taking away everything that isn’t nailed down.

  31. 31.

    jane's meat curtain

    April 21, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    I learned that Geithner has a very large forehead and no eyebrows.

  32. 32.

    Corner Stone

    April 21, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    I don’t think that “we” will be the ones taking anything away. “They” on the other hand, will be taking away everything that isn’t nailed down.

    No, no, no. Haven’t you been reading your Sully? “They” are the “makers”, and “we” are the “takers”.

  33. 33.

    Corner Stone

    April 21, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    I learned that Geithner always reminds me of the bad guy “best friend” from Ghost.
    Always looks a little suspect to me

  34. 34.

    Bill H

    April 21, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Geithner will assure that the eventual losers will be the taxpayers and not the stockholders and bond holders of the banks and not the Wall Street traders. He is a product of and a creature of that environment, and regards the taxpayer as he does bank depositors and 401(k) investors – as fodder.

  35. 35.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 21, 2009 at 8:46 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    I forgot my place for a moment(Tugs forelock). I guess I’ll just get back to the mill. I hear one on’t cross beams gone owt askew on treadle

  36. 36.

    Broken

    April 21, 2009 at 8:55 pm

    “Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?”

    From the top photo in the article, my take away is that Tim Geithner knows how to drive invisible cars.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    April 21, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM: “brings out the lash”
    I will bear no smart mouth boy! Now git back to taking yore 18 hour shift at the grist mill wheel!

  38. 38.

    Ron Beasley

    April 21, 2009 at 11:25 pm

    What should we take away from this?

    We’re Fucked!

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