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This week's politickin!
Sep. 26th, 2008 12:38 pmI completely and totally admit that I know next to nothing about the world of finance, domestically and globally. But it's quite clear that we're in a huge mess here, and I think it's safe to say that it's a lack of oversight that allowed those in charge of the major financial entities to make ever-more-risky decisions and manipulations, all aimed at inflating markets and padding their own coffers. But no system can sustain such a high rate of growth indefinitely, especially when it's based on such flimsiness, and now we're witnessing the fairly catastrophic results of the resulting collapse.
All that said, my opinion is certainly that something needs to be done--the result of inaction would be increasing and accelerating decline, both here and abroad. What that action needs to be, I have no idea. But whatever it is, I feel very strongly that it needs to be conditional. It needs to be reasonable and careful, and not put the taxpayers on the hook for billions and billions of dollars that will fly out the window because of the mistakes of greedy rich people. And along those same lines, not a penny of taxpayer money should go towards compensating financial executives for their mistakes. In fact, those who profited from the runaway markets should be the main ones shouldering the burden of the bailout. That's not likely to happen, but if nothing else, the notion of "golden parachutes" should be kept as far from this bailout as possible. And lastly, it needs to come with the promise of a lot more oversight and regulation to avoid this sort of mess in the future. Obama favors all of those things, but the plan McCain supports actually calls for LESS oversight and MORE corporate tax breaks. Is this guy for real?
What gets me in all of this, as illustrated by this interview clip, is that all the rabid free-market anti-regulation people are now clamoring for government intervention. People, you can't have it both ways. If you want the government's hands off of business, then you can't ask for handouts (especially unprecedentedly HUGE handouts) when the house of cards you build falls apart. And on the flipside, if you want the government to be around to help you out when the chips are down, you have to give them some say on where those chips get played in the first place.
And all of that isn't even to mention how despicable McCain's behavior has been around this. Obama called McCain to suggest a joint statement, and instead McCain grandstands by "suspending" his campaign (even though his senior advisors made no less than 6 appearances on cable news networks within hours of the announcement, and McCain himself cancelled his rush back to DC to give an interview to Katie Couric to make up for the absolute disaster of an interview Sarah Palin gave, which is yet another topic). And THEN, when McCain did get to DC, he just ended up throwing wrenches into the works, causing other lawmakers to say he has little understanding of the whole subject, and clearly was there as more of a rescue mission for his candidacy than for the nation. It's disgusting and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to believe that anyone sees this guy as the better candidate. But maybe that's just me.
Back to the Palin interview for one moment. Choice quote:
That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Helping the-[here she looks down at her notes]—it’s got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade—we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today—we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity.
Read that two or three times; it actually makes LESS sense upon subsequent attempts. As I said to someone here at work, it's like the McCain advisors gave her a stack of index cards with little catchphrases like "health care reform" and "job creation" written on them, and instructed her to piece together her responses from those. The Christian Science Monitor quoted someone as basically calling it "magnetic poetry talking points." What an unimaginable mistake is her candidacy, and I really can't help but feel sorry for her to be so suddenly thrust into a role for which she is so clearly not prepared.
Meanwhile, the debate is apparently back on for tonight, probably because McCain's advisors have told him he has no choice but to get out there and take some focus off the Palin interview. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm especially looking forward to the next day's tally of confirmed untruths from each side. I suspect it will be a pretty lopsided contest in that respect.
All that said, my opinion is certainly that something needs to be done--the result of inaction would be increasing and accelerating decline, both here and abroad. What that action needs to be, I have no idea. But whatever it is, I feel very strongly that it needs to be conditional. It needs to be reasonable and careful, and not put the taxpayers on the hook for billions and billions of dollars that will fly out the window because of the mistakes of greedy rich people. And along those same lines, not a penny of taxpayer money should go towards compensating financial executives for their mistakes. In fact, those who profited from the runaway markets should be the main ones shouldering the burden of the bailout. That's not likely to happen, but if nothing else, the notion of "golden parachutes" should be kept as far from this bailout as possible. And lastly, it needs to come with the promise of a lot more oversight and regulation to avoid this sort of mess in the future. Obama favors all of those things, but the plan McCain supports actually calls for LESS oversight and MORE corporate tax breaks. Is this guy for real?
What gets me in all of this, as illustrated by this interview clip, is that all the rabid free-market anti-regulation people are now clamoring for government intervention. People, you can't have it both ways. If you want the government's hands off of business, then you can't ask for handouts (especially unprecedentedly HUGE handouts) when the house of cards you build falls apart. And on the flipside, if you want the government to be around to help you out when the chips are down, you have to give them some say on where those chips get played in the first place.
And all of that isn't even to mention how despicable McCain's behavior has been around this. Obama called McCain to suggest a joint statement, and instead McCain grandstands by "suspending" his campaign (even though his senior advisors made no less than 6 appearances on cable news networks within hours of the announcement, and McCain himself cancelled his rush back to DC to give an interview to Katie Couric to make up for the absolute disaster of an interview Sarah Palin gave, which is yet another topic). And THEN, when McCain did get to DC, he just ended up throwing wrenches into the works, causing other lawmakers to say he has little understanding of the whole subject, and clearly was there as more of a rescue mission for his candidacy than for the nation. It's disgusting and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to believe that anyone sees this guy as the better candidate. But maybe that's just me.
Back to the Palin interview for one moment. Choice quote:
That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Helping the-[here she looks down at her notes]—it’s got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade—we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today—we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity.
Read that two or three times; it actually makes LESS sense upon subsequent attempts. As I said to someone here at work, it's like the McCain advisors gave her a stack of index cards with little catchphrases like "health care reform" and "job creation" written on them, and instructed her to piece together her responses from those. The Christian Science Monitor quoted someone as basically calling it "magnetic poetry talking points." What an unimaginable mistake is her candidacy, and I really can't help but feel sorry for her to be so suddenly thrust into a role for which she is so clearly not prepared.
Meanwhile, the debate is apparently back on for tonight, probably because McCain's advisors have told him he has no choice but to get out there and take some focus off the Palin interview. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm especially looking forward to the next day's tally of confirmed untruths from each side. I suspect it will be a pretty lopsided contest in that respect.
