Karl is amazingly insightful. His Ticker is daily reading for me, and it should be as well for anyone interested in what's happening with the
economy.
Relentless has been working on getting an
interview with him - everyone should pop in
with some questions!
There's a lot of info in today's Ticker (direct link to it is
right
here). Particularly important bits to note are:
We have discovered that Treasury, on its own initiative, changed tax policy in a fashion that will cost taxpayers another $150 billion, this
beyond the TARP as well, without Congressional approval - this time as an "incentive" for banks buying up other banks.
Meaning
this incredibly under the radar bit of
news,
and this:
Well Bloomberg (among many others, myself included) would like to try to figure it out, but The Fed doesn't seem to want to disclose what it
has taken in, from whom, and how it valued those alleged assets.
Why not Ben?
Are you afraid that you might wind up disclosing that you in fact have been printing money, after you told Congress there was no inflationary impact
of your actions, and that such a disclosure might not only result in a contempt citation from Congress (or worse) but might also trigger mass
capital flight by foreign governments and investors who suddenly come to realize that you've screwed them?
The more dollars we print (and make obvious we're printing) to spray on the burning banks, the less foreign governments will want to invest in US
Bonds, Treasuries and the like. Foreign investors buy bonds from America as investment vehicles; it gives us money to put in the coffers (or to throw
at bankrupt financial institutions), and they make a modest return when the terms of the bond are up. Why would they invest in an ever-weakening
currency?
Originally posted by Dbriefed
Obama will crush the economy.
Our economy is long crushed, my friend. It's been in Weekend at Bernie's mode for at least 8 years.
[edit on 11/11/2008 by anachryon]
