Bailing Out the Boat
My days of boat bailing go way back. In the 50s and 60s when I was growing up and Wilson Pond was my playground, my dad had a little business going on the side to supplement his meager government retirement as well as to share his love for Wilson Pond. He ran a little boat landing on Wilson Pond where people could come for a day or a weekend or even a week and put their boat in, maybe dock it overnight, maybe even camp out. In those days ten bucks went a long long ways. He also rented three or four old flat-bottomed wooden boats. Every time it rained, someone in our family, often me, would go to the landing and bail out those boats using old one-gallon oil cans with their tops removed and their rims bent into a V. If it had rained hard enough, we might bring a larger bucket.
This proposed government bailout of Wall Street has absolutely no similarities to bailing out those boats. Yes some would have you think that Wall Street is just about to sink into the Atlantic unless we begin bailing like madmen. I tend to think that's not the case. The Dow is still hovering around 11,000. It's still inflated by all the easy money of the Clinton and Bush years. And then there's all that money that the Bush tax cuts put in the hands of the wealthiest Americans. There's a lot of money still out there. Real estate prices are still well up there in the housing bubble range. They haven't dropped to pre-bubble levels. Gold is up. Energy is up. New car lots are full of gas-guzzlers still. Our highways are clogged with SUVs and full-sized pickups. There's no panic for lack of money.
No, this bailout isn't because Wall Street is going under. It's not.
This bailout is the golden parachute for the outgoing Bush team.
Bush is asking Congress to hurry up and pass legislation that puts $700 billion borrowed dollars, borrowed from God knows whom, into the hands of the Bush team as a blank check with no oversight and no legal recourse in case of abuse. It's the biggest bank heist in the history of the world if Congress goes ahead with Bush's demands.
Why does that come as no surprise to me. Bush is on his way out of Washington. Why shouldn't I expect him to suck the treasury dry on his way out the door? It's become the American way.
This proposed government bailout of Wall Street has absolutely no similarities to bailing out those boats. Yes some would have you think that Wall Street is just about to sink into the Atlantic unless we begin bailing like madmen. I tend to think that's not the case. The Dow is still hovering around 11,000. It's still inflated by all the easy money of the Clinton and Bush years. And then there's all that money that the Bush tax cuts put in the hands of the wealthiest Americans. There's a lot of money still out there. Real estate prices are still well up there in the housing bubble range. They haven't dropped to pre-bubble levels. Gold is up. Energy is up. New car lots are full of gas-guzzlers still. Our highways are clogged with SUVs and full-sized pickups. There's no panic for lack of money.
No, this bailout isn't because Wall Street is going under. It's not.
This bailout is the golden parachute for the outgoing Bush team.
Bush is asking Congress to hurry up and pass legislation that puts $700 billion borrowed dollars, borrowed from God knows whom, into the hands of the Bush team as a blank check with no oversight and no legal recourse in case of abuse. It's the biggest bank heist in the history of the world if Congress goes ahead with Bush's demands.
Why does that come as no surprise to me. Bush is on his way out of Washington. Why shouldn't I expect him to suck the treasury dry on his way out the door? It's become the American way.
posted by Bill | 5:16 AM
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