Banking continues...
As reported by the AP:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. acquired the assets of Washington Mutual Inc.'s banking operations Thursday after federal regulators seized the ailing thrift, the country's largest...
The Seattle-based thrift has roughly $310 billion in assets and was searching for a lifeline after piling up billions of dollars in losses due to failed mortgages.
And Warren Buffet just dropped a cool $5 billion for a stake in Hank Paulson's former firm, Goldman Sachs. Which btw, I do wonder... has Buffett spoken with Paulson in the past week?
I'm still opposed to the Wall Street bailout.
Tim White
2 comments:
Dodd does not expect ‘many more’ banks to fail
By Jessica Holzer
Posted: 07/14/08 11:45 AM [ET]
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday said he does not expect “many more” banks to fail, in the wake of last week’s implosion of IndyMac Bancorp.
Dodd, interviewed on CBS’s “Early Show,” said that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation head Sheila Bair “has indicated there are problems” with other banks. The senator added that he is “more optimistic” about mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than he is about some lenders that engaged in these “very, very bad mortgages.”
I need to find the quotes, but earlier this week I saw two gems from Schumer.
1) he said a bailout would happen with widespread bipartisan support. The only exception was "a few outliers."
2) he said none of them (the 535 members) understood this stuff because none of them had financiers / economists on their staffs.
Which for me begs the question... is it possible that "the outliers" are the few who actually understand what's happening... and they're the only ones not drinking Bernanke's Kool-aid?
Seriously, whether Paul's Austrian economics is right or Keynes is right or whoever is right... Schumer basically admits that most members of Congress have little, if any, understanding of this trillion dollar bill.
This is a moment in time, not when Congress should find bipartisan support and Rubber Stamp Bush's plan.
No.
This is a moment in time when they should look to the elected members of Congress (including Ron Paul and any others who are educated on money, banking and economics) and ask them to lead the discussion.
Schumer, Dodd, Frank, Boehner, Reid, Pelosi, McConnell should all step aside and listen to their JUNIOR members of Congress before taking action.
But therein lies a problem. Their egos are too big for such a thing. They actually believe that seniority = knowledge & wisdom.
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