Sell Texas

[Thailandnotes]

Usually don't read the comments posted after NYTimes columnists, but the bail out of Fannie and Freddie brought people out of the woodwork. Pretty entertaining.

1. "As a musician in the Subway, I sometimes play at the Wall Street Station. In August of 2007 I was telling the political blogs that the mood in the station was the realization that the seed corn was gone and there was nothing left to plant. Mayor Bloomberg echoed this not long afterward. The Rector Street Station near the AMEX has about one third of the non tourist traffic that it had three years ago. Just as if someone had thrown a large rock into a still pond, the economy is only experiencing the first ripples. There are more to come, and unless the fundamental direction of the nation is changed, there will be more rocks."

2. "One other thing, there is a third player in this who is also deeply in debt, the Federal Government itself. Can such a fiscally irresponsible institution as our government shore up the monetary system without any increased revenue? I doubt it.
Eventually we may face another Nixonian devaluation of the dollar, though we may get there through market forces instead of policy. Personally I think we might avoid much of the upcoming difficulty if we just sell Texas to China."

3. "As a politician involved in the Keating 5 scandal, John McCain was is in the perfect position to understand the implications of an over-leveraged real estate market."


http://community.nytimes.com/article...08krugman.html

It was a rougher crowd over at the Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090700715.html

[GRG55]

Re: Sell Texas

]..."One other thing, there is a third player in this who is also deeply in debt, the Federal Government itself.[/B] Can such a fiscally irresponsible institution as our government shore up the monetary system without any increased revenue? I doubt it.

Interestingly these little items got downplayed by Bloomberg in a single paragraph buried in a couple of articles with other titles. Reuter's decided they warranted a bit more attention...


Nothing here that would be surprising to iTulipers...

CBO sees budget deficit rising next year

Tue Sep 9, 2008 12:30pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. budget deficit will swell to record levels in 2009 as the "turbulent" economy cuts revenues and hikes government spending, a congressional report said on Tuesday in an assessment that does not include the possible costs of rescuing two gigantic mortgage companies.

The Congressional Budget Office's latest budget and economic forecast projected a deficit of about $407 billion this year, rising to a record $438 billion in the fiscal year that starts on October 1. That would shatter the 2004 record of $413 billion and would be in contrast to the $161 billion budget shortfall last year, CBO said.

"The significant expansion in the deficit is the result of a substantial increase in spending and a halt in revenue growth...



GSE operations should be on federal budget: CBO

Tue Sep 9, 2008 10:39am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The operations of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were placed into a federal conservatorship, should now be treated as part of the federal budget, the head of the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

"That means that revenue earned would be reflected as a receipt, and spending would be reflected as an outlay," CBO Director Peter Orszag said at a briefing.

[Supercilious]

Re: Sell Texas

It was a rougher crowd over at the Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090700715.html

Look what a load of BS were serving at WaPo:

Richardson, Texas: Hi Steve. Why should the government (... which means us, but we're not asked to approve... just ordered to pay the bill) bail out failures which are the result of unbridled greed? It seems to me that capitalism has somewhat deviated from its original philosophy, in that in cases like this one, it's a "no risk" game for the "big" stockholders. Let them face the pragmatic reality: you fail, you lose! It will bruise their greed-driven egos but, hey, that's life. If this means that some other corporate financial entities will fail as a result, well let the dominos fall and good riddance. Others, with perhaps better intentions and social integrity, will take their place.


Steven Pearlstein: First, let's stop this unbridled greed business. All business is based on greed (I have yet to be able to distinguish when greed is bridled and when it is unbridled, so maybe you can help me on that one). Those who most benefited from the risk-taking of the past, the shareholders, are pretty much wiped out for the moment, so they have received what you would consider their just dessert. The people who were bailed out are institutions and individuals that bond Fan and Fred bonds -- they, in effect, agreed to lend money. And they will get their money back with interest. They did on the assumption that the government stood behind these entities, which were unique and special and did have a government charter and a public purpose (so that's not traditional capitalism, as you defined it). And now that assumption is being made good: the government is standing behind these debts.

[...]

You can be judgmental all you want about that. But this isn't, as I've written before, a morality play. Its very serious, real life situation where the well-being of people all around the world are at stake. And it requires the practical, sound judgment of policy makers like Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke and their crews, which are doing, frankly, a damn good job at managing a very bad crisis. Did they and other policy makers contribute to that crisis. Yes. But that's water over the dam, as they say. What matters now is what's best for the public going forward.

Really??? :rolleyes:

Was this Washington Post or Washington Pravda? This guy beats even Crammer....

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Sell Texas

Agreed. The Post is toast, burnt and soggy.

[metalman]

Re: Sell Texas

Look what a load of BS were serving at WaPo:

Really??? :rolleyes:

Was this Washington Post or Washington Pravda? This guy beats even Crammer....

Steven Pearlstein: What matters now is what's best for the public going forward.

no, stevie fire econ trade press asslicker, what matters most is...

listen carefully...

ANYONE WHO MADE A ******* DIME OFF THIS SHIT GOES TO JAIL AND LOSES ALL THE MONEY THEY STOLE AND IS STRIPPED OF ALL CREDENTIALS SO WHEN THEY GET OUT OF PRISON THEY'RE AT SQUARE ONE IN THE LABOR MARKET WITH THE PEOPLE THEY SCREWED, FIGHTING FOR A JOB BAGGING GROCERIES AT STOP&SHOP OR CLEANING THE ******* SLURPY MACHINE AT THE LOCAL 7/11.

[jtabeb]

Re: Sell Texas

no, stevie fire econ trade press asslicker, what matters most is...

listen carefully...

ANYONE WHO MADE A ******* DIME OFF THIS SHIT GOES TO JAIL AND LOSES ALL THE MONEY THEY STOLE AND IS STRIPPED OF ALL CREDENTIALS SO WHEN THEY GET OUT OF PRISON THEY'RE AT SQUARE ONE IN THE LABOR MARKET WITH THE PEOPLE THEY SCREWED, FIGHTING FOR A JOB BAGGING GROCERIES AT STOP&SHOP OR CLEANING THE ******* SLURPY MACHINE AT THE LOCAL 7/11.

Now can we PLEASE get out the torches and pitchforks, already!!!

[c1ue]

Re: Sell Texas

Sorry, but the Post is a Berkshire Hathaway key holding, and its behavior shouldn't be THAT surprising since Sir Warren is clearly playing ball a la Salomon Brothers.

[nathanhulick]

Re: Sell Texas

Now can we PLEASE get out the torches and pitchforks, already!!!

Sorry, its a bad time, 90210 is back on!!!

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Sell Texas

no, stevie fire econ trade press asslicker, what matters most is...

listen carefully...

ANYONE WHO MADE A ******* DIME OFF THIS SHIT GOES TO JAIL AND LOSES ALL THE MONEY THEY STOLE AND IS STRIPPED OF ALL CREDENTIALS SO WHEN THEY GET OUT OF PRISON THEY'RE AT SQUARE ONE IN THE LABOR MARKET WITH THE PEOPLE THEY SCREWED, FIGHTING FOR A JOB BAGGING GROCERIES AT STOP&SHOP OR CLEANING THE ******* SLURPY MACHINE AT THE LOCAL 7/11.

The guy raises my blood pressure too.

[GRG55]

Re: Sell Texas

Sorry, but the Post is a Berkshire Hathaway key holding, and its behavior shouldn't be THAT surprising since Sir Warren is clearly playing ball a la Salomon Brothers.

And once upon a time, long ago, Fannie Mae was also a key holding in the Berkshire portfolio...;)

What I find intriguing is Buffett's quite dramatic change from being a bit reclusive (except at the annual meeting in Omaha) and the amount of television time he's now putting in, expecially on CNBC of all places, in the past couple of years.

What's his motive? It's not as though he was banging a drum trying to warn of the credit situation, etc. (although I do remember his homily on Thriftville/Squanderville, and warnings about the current account)? And he doesn't need to work on a "legacy" late in life; probably risks doing damage to his reputation at this point. Any psychologists out there with insight into what drives this sort of behaviour?

[Rantly McTirade]

Re: Sell Texas

And once upon a time, long ago, Fannie Mae was also a key holding in the Berkshire portfolio...;)

What I find intriguing is Buffett's quite dramatic change from being a bit reclusive (except at the annual meeting in Omaha) and the amount of television time he's now putting in, expecially on CNBC of all places, in the past couple of years.

What's his motive? It's not as though he was banging a drum trying to warn of the credit situation, etc. (although I do remember his homily on Thriftville/Squanderville, and warnings about the current account)? And he doesn't need to work on a "legacy" late in life; probably risks doing damage to his reputation at this point. Any psychologists out there with insight into what drives this sort of behaviour?

He a 'ho now, like others.
I posted something like this-wondering about Buffett's 180 from 'secretive
Oracle 'o Omaha' to guy who has to offer an opinion on everything in the
public realm. And how he pimped only the Democratic sock puppets(Maw
Clinton & Odamnit), another 180 from his father(Howard) who was an iso-
lationist, paleoconservative type Congresscritter in the 1930's.

[Rantly McTirade]

Re: Sell Texas

Now can we PLEASE get out the torches and pitchforks, already!!!

AK-47's MUCH more efficient.

[c1ue]

Re: Sell Texas

And once upon a time, long ago, Fannie Mae was also a key holding in the Berkshire portfolio...;)

What I find intriguing is Buffett's quite dramatic change from being a bit reclusive (except at the annual meeting in Omaha) and the amount of television time he's now putting in, expecially on CNBC of all places, in the past couple of years.

What's his motive? It's not as though he was banging a drum trying to warn of the credit situation, etc. (although I do remember his homily on Thriftville/Squanderville, and warnings about the current account)? And he doesn't need to work on a "legacy" late in life; probably risks doing damage to his reputation at this point. Any psychologists out there with insight into what drives this sort of behaviour?

FNMA was never a key holding - although Freddie was.

You'll note, however, that Buffet dumped his Freddie shares in 1999/2000.

Sir Warren does know how to cut his losses and clearly considered Freddie unsalvageable.

Wells Fargo, on the other hand, is probably one of the healthiest of the big banks and is worth trying to save.

Salomon brothers in the '90s was right on the bubble of save-ability, but Sir Warren did get into it eventually and turned it around. At that time he also raised his profile considerably - testifying before Congress and what not. So what's happening now is not unprecedented.

Sir Warren has talked at great length about over-reliance on debt esp. to foreigners, overconsumption, as well as the whole hedge fund thing; but ultimately his job isn't policing the nation's finances, it is making money for BRK.

That he's done very well.

[ASH]

Re: Sell Texas

What's his motive? It's not as though he was banging a drum trying to warn of the credit situation, etc. (although I do remember his homily on Thriftville/Squanderville, and warnings about the current account)? And he doesn't need to work on a "legacy" late in life; probably risks doing damage to his reputation at this point. Any psychologists out there with insight into what drives this sort of behaviour?

I'm not a psychologist, but I do think this is about his age. His legacy may be assured, but I would think that at the end of anyone's life, they relish being listened to and aclaimed as "wise". He is treated with some reverence, and that must feel good. Somewhat earlier, when there's yet a long road to travel, the leader of a company might restrain the natural urge to pontificate out of professionalism. I think this is just something that Buffett is finally allowing himself to enjoy.