Emperor Paulsontine Speaks

[aequalsa]

"today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence in our financial system. We regret having to take these actions," said Paulson. "Today's actions are not what we ever wanted to do - but today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system."

"It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. The power you give me I will lay down when this crisis has abated." Stated Emp-...Chancellor Palpatine

anyways he continues,

"Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans - me included," Paulson added.

"Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable."

Said Bernanke: "We will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy."

This last part worries me a bit. Not so much that I think we will live in a dictatorship soon, but just that we are the proverbial frogs in water that's slowly heating up to a boil and don't know any better because it's so gradual.

So anyway, my first question is; how believable is it that things will actually go back to how it was before the so called crisis? Will those with power now relinquish it once the crisis has passed?

I understand that these powers were utilized before. during the depression, and they, in fact, did sell the houses back eventually. I worry now that things and people are different in their tolerances for socialism and the result might not be as nice.

Second, if they do buy these up and then resell them when the prices improve, what effect is that likely to have on the real estate and finance market in the following years?

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=...&id=6448243

[FeatherFall]

To paraphrase Diana Hsieh, "Galt help us!"

[Miles White]

Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable.

Why? And what alternative would you consider better? At who else's expense?

Said Bernanke: "We will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy."

Hearing those words uttered in the same sentence together makes you think that Bernanke the FedCzar has never even herd of a little thing called "Laissez-faire Capitalism" before.

[Pete Caya]

Trust me, Bernanke has. He wrote my Micro-economics textbook jointly with someone and it's a great explanation of why the free-market does work. The only way I could possibly think that Bernanke could contradict himself this much is that he didn't actually have a hand in the writing of the book.

[K-Mac]

Ah, a second-hander...that would explain it!

Edited October 15, 2008 by K-Mac

[putofftoolong]

Think of what this says to any wouldbe dictator or socialist anywhere on the globe.

"Sure we believe in capitalism generally, but heavens, not when there is an emergency."

Every socialist's moral confidence just skyrocketed

this is how a depression leads to war

Edited October 15, 2008 by putofftoolong

[KurtColville]

Trust me, Bernanke has. He wrote my Micro-economics textbook jointly with someone and it's a great explanation of why the free-market does work. The only way I could possibly think that Bernanke could contradict himself this much is that he didn't actually have a hand in the writing of the book.

I would offer this explanation: he doesn't care about the free market or contradictions; he only wants to regulate the economy and to have it "somehow" work. The same could be said for most poeple.

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

I would offer this explanation: he doesn't care about the free market or contradictions; he only wants to regulate the economy and to have it "somehow" work. The same could be said for most people.

Or they think it is fine and moral to nudge the economy with a gun into a direction it is not going -- i.e. "green" products or making it possible for minorities and poor folks to buy a home. Generally speaking, at least these days, the morality of altruism trumps any understanding of market mechanics. And the greens go as far as considering non-humans as citizens, in a sense, and requiring protection under the law.

In other words, you can know how a car works, and still want to regulate car production, because their claim is that it is moral to force auto manufacturers to go green. So, to them, it is not a contradiction to understand the mechanics of a free market, and yet want to regulate it if it is not efficiently going into a direction they prefer it to go in. It's like a thug believing it is practical to rob a bank, instead of earning one's keep, even if he understand how markets work.