Let AIG fail. Let Citi fail. GM, Ford, Fannie, Freddie etc. Let them all crash and burn. Financial crisisses their intensity are always a sign of excesses leading up to the crisis and that needs to work itself trough the system eventually one way or the other. It's hard to believe this would be better than propping everything up but hey what do I know I'm a european child of the wealthfare state. Cheers.
Doesn't really matter what we on ET believe, does it? Da gubmint does what it likes, regardless. Merry Xmas, ya'll.
Perhaps bankruptcy is not what it seems..... The assets of F and others would be sold at a price that works.... This allows for better long term employment.... Why should the US itself turn into a giant GM.....with legal largesse, legacy costs, and antiquated government structure.... Let the economy transform into what it needs to do..... It is going to do it anyway..... What the US should do at this very moment is to allow individuals to get big first by reducing their costs.... ie a 10% consumption tax.... Let individuals fashion the economy through innovation and creativity....along with it true productivity.... And next time around .....employ common sense regulation.... ie commodity oil prices...and its markets.... Allow participation relative to its size....etc... Government can be big only if individuals are bigger....
It's funny that the government is attempting to bail out everything in sight when the foundation for everything is just plain rotten. We say we are a capitalistic society, but we are all witnessing the truth. Part of capitalism is to weed out the parts that don't work. The government is preventing this from happening and we are going to be paying a very long time for their arrogance.
we're capitalists when things are swell and dandy. we're socialists when things turn sour. a lot of people benefited from the bubble economy of 2002-2006, and not just ceo's of banks. autoworkers and the little guy benefited too. now that things have turned south, they somehow feel entitled to a job.
================== RE; Controlled burn , not arson Good point,Captian Noah warned them about that also. But to answer op question-yes, pros do a controlled burn,my friend had a pro forestry background.Fire dept helps. Citigroup , GM ,LEH, Bear ,deserved every downtick/downtrend they got. In 20/20 hindsight, gov now rightly admits downtick meddling was a mistake. In a perfect world C or GM gets to 00.07 or less,or bought; which is most fair to TM,HMC,NSANY.........& those that did it right. To bad for the silly minority of enviromental extremists, that dont alow for controlled burns, or select careful cutting; that why you have a hell of a hot ,dangerous wildfire. In the real world lightening does strike, hurricanes do change landscapes, gov is not God. No[repeat no] gov can control climate, or run a car business.Long live the private sector, they did a much better job delivering water during/after Katrina hurricane.
I understand from an economic perspective why it would be better to let failed company's go but say they would have let F&F fail the Chineze would have never lent another dime to the US ever same goes for the billions and billions with Citi abroad that would have just vanished overnight because Uncle Sam believes in free market capitalism as the best way to achieve prosperity. Do these circumstances ad weight to the argument some kind of intervention could be in place from time to time?