kirktastic

The House of Representatives passed the big bailout bill it rejected on Monday. The difference in the two versions was the version the House passed had $150 billon in pork added to it (things like tax treatment for wooden arrowhead manufacturing and Nascar racetracks). The other difference is it was called a bailout on Monday but a “rescue” plan on Friday.

The New York Times has a great article today on what is next for this bailout plan. The first thing is Paulson gets to give $250B to a Wall Street firm to manage rather than have the government manage it itself. This firm (I’m betting Paulson’s former firm Goldman Sachs) will get billions in fees to manage this for the taxpayer.

What has bothered me about this is some of the conflicting information about the “Main Street” impact of this financial clusterfuck. The Politicians and the talking heads on CNBC say that commercial paper is harder to get so small businesses are having a hard time making payroll and buying equipment. But on the local NPR station and in some other places, I’m hearing at the local level, banks and small businesses aren’t having troubles getting credit. I don’t have perfect credit but I got a car last month with 0.9% interest. A credit card just raised my limit without me asking. Is this crisis really the doom and gloom that we’ve heard of? When CNBC was covering the debate on the floor of the House yesterday they happened upon a clip of a representative saying it is so bad there is no gas at gas stations in parts of his state. Really? No gas? It is hard to tell the difference between what is really happening and fear mongering.

Also, let us not forget this $700B is in addition to the hundreds of billions of dollars spent taking over AIG and propping up other financial institutions.

The New York Times does a good job laying out the timeline of this financial clusterfuck.

And we learn on Friday morning Wells Fargo wants to buy Wachovia even though Wachovia was in an FDIC arranged marriage with Citi. But Citi’s deal required the government to take on the debt. The Wells Fargo deal doesn’t require government intervention. And when WaMu failed, the FDIC worked like it was supposed to. It lined up Chase to buy the bank operations meaning that depositors didn’t lose a cent. Nor did the FDIC have to pay anything out from its dwindling funds. If Wells Fargo is going into this deal saying publicly it will do it w/o government bailouts. But to hear pundits talk, the end is near and only this $700B check will fix it.

The housing “industry” is in crisis due to a lot of stupid people doing completely stupid things. Yes, you can blame the dumbshits that bought houses they couldn’t really afford. But you should also blame the dumbshit banks that made the loans. Banks that didn’t require a verification of income or ability to pay. It was easier to buy a house than it was to get a cell phone contract! But the engine needed new mortgage or refinances to work. The huge house construction industry needed new home buyers to buy the homes that they were building. The mortgage brokers and realtors wanted commissions. Everyone was winning when homes were doubling in price. Now everyone loses.

There’s a great story called Foreclosure Alley about what is going on in Southern California right now. When I visit my momma in Las Vegas I see the same thing (except they painted grass part) and in my former home in Phoenix. Giant subdivisions rotting from the inside. When you see the comments in newspaper websites or other places saying the foreclosures are the person’s own fault and being happy it is happening are forgetting a critical part that this KCET story has in it. When all your neighbors default and abandon their homes, that makes your home worthless too. Your $400K house is now worth $180K. Too bad if you owe $380K on it. I’m not exactly sure how Mr. Paulson’s bailout is going to fix that.

Oh, Sarah. The debate on Thursday was kind of a letdown in the sense we didn’t get to see as much of the Sarah Palin that mean Katie Couric showed us who couldn’t name a newspaper she reads or a Supreme Court case she disagreed with (even the one between Exxon and Alaska that lowered the damages of Exxon fucking up Alaska). But we did see the talking points machine not answering questions. In her rush to make sure she got all of her talking points out she failed to actually say anything substantive. If you missed the debates (or even if you saw them), here’s Mr. David Letterman’s roundup. Is it really too much to ask for a candidate that is running for an office that gives him/her the opportunity to launch nuclear weapons to actually be able to pronounce it correctly? I know I’m coming off as an east coast elitist when I say this, but it would also be nice to have her pronounce words ending in a ‘g’ as well? And “betcha” isn’t really a word.
Oh, and this McCain/Palin Ad? That was a real ad that appeared on WashingtonPost.com for a few hours on Friday. As someone who has managed advertising, I know how it is important to proof work before sending it out the door. Then again, I’m not a maverick.

I don’t really care what “Famous Person” thinks, I’d rather here the opinions of “Area Man”. This is The Onion, right? It isn’t? We are so fucked.