Yet another interest rate cut

[ivor]

Looks like they cut interest rates again today by 50 basis points. 

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/509779-expected-us-rate-cut-renews-calls-for-gulf-to-depeg

[Aggie]

Ayuh, and the market bounced a bit, but there's been so many cuts that I doubt it'll do much real good for investor confidence. 

Never mind that I've been prayin' for a market crash (A Random Walk Down Wall Street told me to).

[ivor]

There was an hour long rally but the market still closed lower.  Yeah Shrub!

This is good.  I mean I think it's funny that Monkey McCain and Weasel Romney are arguing about who's the "real" conservative when neither of them are.  Ron Paul points basically says, "Hey guys Rome is burning and you're playing slap-ass?"

[youtube=425,350]fhAokoMgSDc[/youtube]

[beagle]

Looks like they cut interest rates again today by 50 basis points. 

Ask the Japanese what happens when they get to zero...

[Griffin NoName]

If they cut interest rates too far we'll all get bored.

[ivor]

Ask the Japanese what happens when they get to zero...

Exactly!

[beagle]

Northern Rock, Bear Stearns, place your bets. Who's next?

[ivor]

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  I expect that Saudi Arabia and the UAE will unpeg their currencies from the dollar before the end of the year.  The global economy will probably crash and bounce back quickly.  The US will recover nine trillion dollars after that.

[Sibling Chatty]

Gee, that Republican reputation for fiscal responsibility sure has worked out just wonderfully, huh??

[Griffin NoName]

I'm thinking of setting myself up as a bank and asking to be bailed out !!!!!!!!

there seems to me to be something fundamentally wrong in a capatilist society that a "business" can just get given dosh to stay afloat as these banks are doing. Yeh, I know the arguments for keeping the economy alive and people from destitution..... Where's Goat?  We need him

[Aggie]

there seems to me to be something fundamentally wrong in a capatilist society that a "business" can just get given dosh to stay afloat as these banks are doing. Yeh, I know the arguments for keeping the economy alive and people from destitution..... Where's Goat?  We need him

Ayuh - this is a better place to discuss it than Seed Swaps, but if the Gov't is going to bail out the banks, they should PWN their asses.  I am firmly socialist in that I believe the government SHOULD take a stake in certain businesses, to their profit.  I am also firmly Canadian in that I expect they will bungle the job, but I'll forgive them anyways. 

Everything the Fed has done lately smacks of panic without a definite plan - and the market is showing it by dropping at every turn (minus some small rallies).

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  I expect that Saudi Arabia and the UAE will unpeg their currencies from the dollar before the end of the year.  The global economy will probably crash and bounce back quickly.  The US will recover nine trillion dollars after that.

That or Saudi Arabia et al will step in to bail out some of these banks (I think there's been talks with Citigroup) at bargain-basement prices.  America will be owned by foreign money even more than it already is by the end of this fiasco. 

Y'all are dragging down Canada with you, though....     

[ivor]

This is why I think government should stay out of business all together.  Government is no better managing business or finance than they are the weather.  I understand that some people think everything will be better with the right people pulling the right levers at the right time but it just doesn't work out.  The best thing to do is get rid of all these government managed monopolies and let the fittest survive.  That way we may have a chance to see our utility and tax bills go down.  When was the last time that happened?  I don't mean get rid of public everything but seesh, give capitalism a real chance.  Look at Russia and China, they are freeing their socialist bonds and are set to demolish us economically.

Yes, Saudi Arabia et al are going to take the dollars they are holding and snatch up American assets before the dollar tanks.  I welcome it because it seems that everyone but American business managers have better ideas how to run businesses.

[Sibling Chatty]

"Free-market" failures will ALWAYS be bailed out by the government.

Take a good look at who OWNS the government. Then try to figure out why it's so mismanaged, why everything it touches is so mismanaged, and why we're fucked.

The most successful example of government MADE to work? Look at the 30's. WPA projects, all the "government make-work" stuff that BUILT our infrastructure in so many ways. NOT being run by Big Business, which was busy licking its wounds and pretending that Wall Street had NOT just crashed.

[ivor]

It's not a free market if businesses get bailed out by government.  How would a bank compete with another bank that get's bailed out every time they screw up because they know somebody that knows somebody in government?  Who pays for it?  The tax payer.

The Great Depression was caused by government meddling, the same as the next one will be.  The irresponsible spending of the WPA projects lengthened the depression for the United States.  Many other countries were out of depression before we were.

Socialism just doesn't work.  Every country that has abandoned socialism has seen tremendous growth.    Hopefully the United States will abandon it someday.    

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I dissagree, review the level of state ownership in Russia and China and you'll notice is how large it is compared to the west.

The problem with banks is that letting them die in a non regulated market way implies a severe damage to many non-bankers, not only investors but every single person with accounts on that bank.

Either the state bails the bank or assumes the economic distress of all their customers. Given that we have had a lot of consolidation, the death of one bank can affect a significative percentage of the population.

What I would find reasonable is a temporal but complete nationalization of the bank which is to be sold at no more than 2 years after the fact, and all the heads of the bank are to go to jail and pay a steep fine.