Did anyone watch Geithner today? What should we take away from this?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.
Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.
A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
It’s the corruption, stupid.
Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.
This fight is for everything.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.
A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires
Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.
Accountability, motherfuckers.
And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.
They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!
A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.
John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania. Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.
Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.
Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
Tick tock motherfuckers!
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
MikeJ
Tomorrow’s discussion of ppip may be more interesting.
JL
OT The Washington Post has a breaking news alert
Prosecutors Mull Dropping Spy Charges Against Ex-AIPAC Lobbyists
srv
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.
sparky
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.
Zifnab
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.
blogenfreude
The takeaway is that nobody has a fucking clue what to do next.
Zifnab
@srv:
A whatty what?
Just Some Fuckhead
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.
HyperIon
@blogenfreude: Yes!
but of course, no one can actually say that…except on the intertubes.
srv
@Zifnab: Er, I meant a Blood Eagle.
Brick Oven Bill
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.
Zifnab
@srv: See previous comment.
rob
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..
The Grand Panjandrum
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.
srv
@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
Dennis-SGMM
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!
Brachiator
We’re screwed?
From BBC News (Meltdown losses of ‘$4 trillion’ )
On the plus side, the bad economic news distracts us from huge looming problems in Pakistan (Swat’s Taleban expand operations )
TenguPhule
Obviously the solution is to reintroduce slavery and indentured servitude!
Tax cut, bitches!
Corner Stone
I have the overwhelming desire to use the word “asymptotic” in a conversation.
srv
@Corner Stone: Please do. I can’t remember the difference between totic and topic.
Olliander
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.
srv
@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.
MikeL
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.
MikeL
The link got eaten somehow.
http://www.wcbs880.com/Joe-the-Plumber-Stumping-for-Lonegan/4241666
Brachiator
@srv:
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.
Dennis-SGMM
@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.
Comrade Desert Hussein Rat
Shorter Tim Geithner: I failed.
EDIT:
Slightly Longer Tim Geithner:
I Can Haz Guvmint Pension Now, Pleez?
TenguPhule
Brush up on “How to Serve Man”.
Bill Arnold
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.
Dennis-SGMM
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.
jane's meat curtain
I learned that Geithner has a very large forehead and no eyebrows.
Corner Stone
@Dennis-SGMM:
No, no, no. Haven’t you been reading your Sully? “They” are the “makers”, and “we” are the “takers”.
Corner Stone
I learned that Geithner always reminds me of the bad guy “best friend” from Ghost.
Always looks a little suspect to me
Bill H
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.
Dennis-SGMM
@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
Broken
“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.
Corner Stone
@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!
Ron Beasley
We’re Fucked!