2008 Election Morning Banter: Krugman on the continuing economic crisis
by Ari Rutenberg
In today's NYT Paul Krugman explores the total failure of the U.S. government to use its ne
w financial
power to help fix the crisis. He sums it up perfectly saying:
"What’s happening, I suspect, is that the Bush administration’s
anti-government ideology still stands in the way of effective action.
Events have forced Mr. Paulson into a partial nationalization of the
financial system — but he refuses to use the power that comes with
ownership."
I thought these guys (Paulson, Bernanke, etc.), as foolish as they have been, would step up and put their professional, lets-save-the-goddamn-country hats on when it really got bad. Instead they cannot bring themselves to use the influence they have acquired with their equity stakes in the bank, because, at heart, they are not public servants, they are bankers and cannot bring themselves to work in the public interest.
Unlike the Brits, who are requring banks to continue consumer lending at 2007 levels in order to recieve government funds, our government is so dedicated to ideology that they refuse to force banks to lend the capital they have been given. Which is what is need to get the economy going. They are truly spineless idiots who are experts only in saving their own asses, and using fear to push their ideology, no matter how dangerous it has become, or how many people it has screwed. They have sold us down the river. I can only hope that Chris Dodd holds their feet to the fire publicly, and often. Shame, which the bankers seem not to posses, may be the only tool left, at least until Jan 20th.
by Ari Rutenberg
In today's NYT Paul Krugman explores the total failure of the U.S. government to use its new financial
power to help fix the crisis. He sums it up perfectly saying:
anti-government ideology still stands in the way of effective action.
Events have forced Mr. Paulson into a partial nationalization of the
financial system — but he refuses to use the power that comes with
ownership."
I thought these guys (Paulson, Bernanke, etc.), as foolish as they have been, would step up and put their professional, lets-save-the-goddamn-country hats on when it really got bad. Instead they cannot bring themselves to use the influence they have acquired with their equity stakes in the bank, because, at heart, they are not public servants, they are bankers and cannot bring themselves to work in the public interest.
Unlike the Brits, who are requring banks to continue consumer lending at 2007 levels in order to recieve government funds, our government is so dedicated to ideology that they refuse to force banks to lend the capital they have been given. Which is what is need to get the economy going. They are truly spineless idiots who are experts only in saving their own asses, and using fear to push their ideology, no matter how dangerous it has become, or how many people it has screwed. They have sold us down the river. I can only hope that Chris Dodd holds their feet to the fire publicly, and often. Shame, which the bankers seem not to posses, may be the only tool left, at least until Jan 20th.