Comments (20)

• Enjoy Every Sandwich

  Holy cats...I thought I'd accidently gone to the Onion website for a moment.

  I suppose, then, that this means no more taxpayer money will be needed? Ha!

  Published: November 14, 2008 12:47 PM

• Michael

  Excellent news for GM, Ford, Chrysler, American Express, Best Buy, Circuit City, Macy's...

  Published: November 14, 2008 12:49 PM

• Ohhh Henry

  That depends on what the mission is.

  Published: November 14, 2008 1:35 PM

• Mathieu Bédard

  How humble of him...

  Published: November 14, 2008 3:05 PM

• J Cortez

  That picture is very fitting.

  Published: November 14, 2008 4:01 PM

• (8?»

  So now I'm really scared at what is going to come out of this weekend's G20 meeting in DC.

  All your assets are belong to us?

  Published: November 14, 2008 4:03 PM

• J Cortez

  "So now I'm really scared at what is going to come out of this weekend's G20 meeting in DC.

  All your assets are belong to us?"

  I think it will probably be some revised Bretton Woods type of currency agreement that will makes things worse and then eventually fail.

  Who knows? They might start confiscating assets and pensions to "protect" people from the markets. You can never be sure. History has shown that these people will do anything they want no matter how insane and stupid.

  Unless they came out and said, "We're not to going to do anything about the crisis." No good thing can come from the G20.

  Published: November 14, 2008 4:16 PM

• William Rader

  While I know that this post is meant to be satirical, recent changes in the tax laws make Mr. Paulson's statements border on the delusional. I am specifically refering to changes made to Section Section 382 paragraph (h) (Corporate Loss Limitation Rules). The changes I am referring to have purportedly been made by the Internal Revenue Service to provide "relief from the income tax rules governing a change in ownership in a bank" and applies to BANKS ONLY. (See Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2008-83.) Now, NON-BANK FINANCIAL SERVICERS, including lenders such as GE, GMAC, American Express, etc., are becoming banks and bank holding companies so that they can receive the same tax relief and government assistance that banks are receiving under the new tax changes. Insurance companies wanting to apply for the same tax relief could be next .

  Published: November 14, 2008 4:17 PM

• William Rader

  While I know that this post is meant to be satirical, recent changes in the tax laws make Mr. Paulson's statements border on the delusional. I am specifically refering to changes made to IRC Section 382 paragraph (h) (Corporate Loss Limitation Rules). The changes I am referring to have purportedly been made by the Internal Revenue Service to provide "relief from the income tax rules governing a change in ownership in a bank" and applies to BANKS ONLY. (See Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2008-83.) Now, NON-BANK FINANCIAL SERVICERS, including lenders such as GE, GMAC, American Express, etc., are becoming banks and bank holding companies so that they can receive the same tax relief and government assistance that banks are receiving under the new tax changes. Insurance companies wanting to apply for the same tax relief could be next.

  Published: November 14, 2008 4:20 PM

• Bruce Koerber

  Read my lips:

  "Mission accomplished. The first stage of the nationalization of the banking and credit industries has been accomplished. And two more secondary effects: 1). the banking and credit institutions have felt the heavy hand of their 'Lord' so they are fairly submissive now, 2). the general public is in a state of anxiety, near panic, and are very easily persuaded by our ready-to-go propaganda that we (their 'Lord') can 'save' them.

  I can now go back to my lair and snuggle up to the rest of the inner circle of the unConstitutional coup comforted by the thought that the media is under control, the politicians are content with the scraps we have thrown them, our counterfeiting operation is well oiled by our helicopter pilot (Ben Bernanke), and our military forces are too timid to turn against us (despite their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and DOMESTIC).

  I deserve to be praised for my good work!"
  

  Published: November 14, 2008 5:08 PM

• leon

  but, then, there never r-e-a-l-l-y was a crisis, was there? only a big scam by banks to fleece the little people? I'm sure that's what several bloggers here have been writing.....

  Published: November 14, 2008 5:09 PM

• Pat

  Like they say, success has several fathers, but failure is an orphan. The sad thing is if bailouts worked, we should have then all the time.

  Published: November 14, 2008 5:10 PM

• saildog

  One of the posts said he is delusional. Correct.

  He doesn't even understand the problem and he has been focusing on the symptoms. There is no hope that the giant Ponzi scheme that was The Street can ever be resuscitated.

  Published: November 14, 2008 5:23 PM

• Ohhh Henry

  "I think it will probably be some revised Bretton Woods type of currency agreement that will makes things worse and then eventually fail."

  I wonder if they have any hope of even getting such a currency off the ground, let alone nurse it long enough to the point where one could say that it "failed". A central bank usually needs an army to force people to take their counterfeit money, and it also needs a strong political center of gravity at which decisions can be made about how much counterfeiting to do and who will benefit the most from the counterfeiting.

  The USA has been a fairly successful example of a central bank, lasting almost a hundred years thanks to a powerful army and a highly centralized political and financial center (DC and Wall St.).

  The Euro will be a quite unsuccessful example of a central bank, having only about a 10 year run thanks to the lack of an army and lack of a political and financial center.

  The hypothesized new currency regime will have no army whatsoever, no police force, no political center and no financial center. I think they will be about as successful as a counterfeiting cartel as OPEC is as an oil producing cartel. All of which could potentially be good for free markets.

  BTW check out Time magazine's next cover with BHO as FDR. I thought it was a spoof when I saw it at lewrockwell, but it's not. When I realized that it's the real (new new) deal I thought - we're screwed. Really screwed.

  Published: November 14, 2008 9:18 PM

• Andrew

  So Goldman Sachs is ok now? I was concerned they would have failed in a real market, thank god for socialism and our current financial dictator ex Goldman Sachs CEO Paulson.

  Published: November 14, 2008 9:58 PM

• Bisaal

  The Von Mises site predicted that the crash will come and the dollar will also crash.
  The crash has indeed come but dollar has appreciated significantly against all currencies.
  How does von Mises site explain this?

  Published: November 15, 2008 1:42 AM

• newson

  bisaal, ultimately all paper monies become worthless. this is the lesson of history. as to the speed of a paper currency's decline, that is strictly a trading perspective.

  the asset market collapse caused bankers to ask for margin calls across all manner of markets, which had been swelled by the leverage players. debts suddenly had to be repaid in usd, which rose as a result. i wouldn't be betting on this continuing, but this is strictly my personal opinion

  Published: November 15, 2008 5:35 AM

• Keith

  Then where's my dividend check? I thought this was supposed to be a money maker. You know, like the S&L bailout.

  Published: November 15, 2008 9:26 AM

• Eric

  bisaal, I think Austrians would say, us dollars obey supply and demand like anything else, and right now I think there's a lot of fear and for now, cash is king as the fearful create a higher demand for cash..

  Rothbard has written that in a depression, the one saving grace is that prices drop, or in other words, dollars go up in value. This Rothbard says follows from the higher demand to hold cash balances when times are uncertain.
  

  Published: November 16, 2008 11:26 PM

• Friedrich

  Oh, ih, is that the same Paulson that said, world will stop turning when they don't givem him 700 Billions to play with?

  I've seen him once in a video and this was a shock. I guess he love that shocking therapy.....

  Published: November 18, 2008 1:56 AM