Here is the howler printed yesterday, in reference to the prospect of bank nationalization: “This regime change refers to a change in the economic environment so radical that, at least for a while, economic policy makers will need to suspend what are usually sacred principles: minimal interference in free markets, gradualism and predictability.”
Incidentally, I asked a trader and economist at a major hedge fund to be blunt about all the Fed’s actions of late, and whether they have actually caused the meltdown to be far worse than it might have been under laissez-faire. He writes as follows: “We clearly would be better off long term. Short term it is so hard to argue counterfactuals but lately it seems like everything they do is akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater short term, and if they had just let bear go in January, further excesses in 2008 wouldn’t have built up. It took the heat off the banks to sell assets or raise capital as they figured there would be a lifeline from the government.”
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Well the NYT is now overtly a scam. I am sure it knows it but it’d upset the ideologues who read for it to be honest.
This article actually high lights the core problem with the financial system. No one knows who is insolvent, so no one wants to lend any money. The big secret is that almost everyone is insolvent, but they can’t admit it.
The fact that hundreds of billions of dollars are being provided means the problems are truly gargantuan. The parallel fact that few targets for all this money have been identified is striking. The powers that be know that the world has already ended, but they would like to work in the shadows outside scrutiny if they can.
Did you all see the absolute propaganda piece in the NYT today called “The End of American Capitalism”? The title is sadly true but the meat of the article was beyond mere ignorance on the subject.
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