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BGonline.org Forums
Will Stock Market Tanking Hurt BG Attendance?
Posted By: Barry Silliman In Response To: Will Stock Market Tanking Hurt BG Attendance? (Perry Gartner)
Date: Tuesday, 30 September 2008, at 2:30 p.m.
Hi Perry. My statement that rollouts bore me was hyperbole.
Your suggestion is more acceptable if as you state the private institutions are incented to dispose of the assets themselves, because I believe they could dispose of them more efficiently and profitably than the government. However, I still have to wonder, if these assets are going to produce a positive return, why can't private investors purchase them? Aren't they interested in making a profit?
You mention the 'confidence problem', and I agree that this action is really all about propping up 'confidence' until the next crisis occurs, whether it is the looming Social Security and Medicare entitlement crises that will dwarf this one, or another oil shock or some unanticipated crisis.
I also suppose that it is logically inconsistent for me to insist that the private sector be left alone to bail this out when I stated and believe that it was government intrusion in the private sector that was at the root cause of the mess. It just sickens me to think that we think the same clowns who brought us this mess are going to fix it.
I do not consider this crisis a failure of free markets and capitalism, I consider it a failure of government meddling in free markets and capitalism.
And really, what does it matter? If we leave it to the private sector then institutions will be selling themselves in part or in whole to Chinese government-controlled institutions and sovereign wealth funds run by billionaire oil sheiks who don't always have our best interests in mind (along with the occasional sales to our friends in Japan or Europe). And if we let the government bail us out we will be financing our debt with treasury securities bought by Chinese government-controlled institutions and sovereign wealth funds run by billionaire oil sheiks who don't always have our best interests in mind.
The lender owns the borrower. You can only live as a debtor for so long, whether you're an individual, a company or a country. This crisis is just the first note from the pied piper. We haven't lost the ability to defend ourselves, but I do believe we're rapidly losing our ability to defend others. If China makes a grab for Taiwan or if Russia makes a grab for some of the countries it lost when the Soviet Union collapsed that are now NATO members, what are we going to do about it? Go back to the policy of MAD?
As I write this the Dow is up 250 points. Maybe the sky isn't falling, or maybe it's just a dead man's bounce off the pavement.
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