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Originally Posted by spazlabz
I didn't know he wasn't in the biz but even taking that into consideration it does not matter much to me. While politics plays a role in our business (say good bye to net neutrality thank you Supreme Court), this is more of a pure political discussion and I'll listen to anyone in that case. Last night certainly was enjoyable for me and I like to think I learned a little  |
I appreciate that but don't worry, nobody takes him seriously.
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First the stimulus. I think that it helped the financial markets somewhat stable and move up from the record lows. IMHO it helped to give some confidence to investors which prevented a total collapse and I am speaking globally here. It was done completely wrong, zero regulations, zero oversight, just a HUGE dumping of cash at people who have proven track records of not being worthy of that level of trust.
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This confidence is misplaced. The government keeps misrepresenting the position of our economy and people are slowly starting to catch on. The confidence overseas is slowly waining because they've started to catch on a well. They're seeing the tremendous deficit spending Obama and Bernanke are engaging in and are slowly pulling out of the dollar.
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The banks learned nothing, the stimulus was intended to free up lending, so banks could help out home owners bent over and getting banged and small/medium sized businesses grow and increase employment. They chose to use the money the same way they have been using money, by gambling on high risk ventures. No one stopped them and even though a lot of the banks have paid back or are in the process of paying back the money they received, without the regulation and oversight it is only a matter of time before we face the same problem again.
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The banks actually increased lending to consumers for a period last year, and decreased lending to small businesses, which increases our capital investments. What that means is, they're morons.
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The problem is that this could have been fixed, it could have been done right OR Congress could catch their breath and make meaningful reforms. I hate to beat this dead horse some more but the Supreme Court decision entitling corporations to have the same rights as individuals has made the prospect or reform almost laughable. Corporations will not allow anything with teeth to be passed.
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I don't think it could have been fixed. We've dug ourselves into this hole that we won't get out of without a collapse and a reinvention of our system. I think it could have been done more efficiently and postponed a collapse for a few decades.