texaspackerbacker
10-03-2008, 12:58 PM
Well, the thing passed. Wall Street has been "bailed out". I tended to be against it.
There IS, however, a silver lining in this dark cloud, actually, several.
The biggest and best IMO, although probably NOT to my fellow conservatives in here, is that they did it with DEBT. They raised the national debt limit to over $11 trillion. That means a massive injection of money to the economy/a massive stimulus for the economy. Historically, this sort of thing has NOT resulted in the most likely negative consequence--significant inflation. I'm betting we won't see that inflation here either.
Secondly, as I have been going round and round with retailguy about, the infamous "mark to market" accounting regulation has been lifted. That alone might just have accomplished the improvement necessary.
Thirdly, some of the Bush tax cuts have been extended--how many, which ones, for how long?--I'm not sure. This was necessary to get the House Republican votes to get the thing passed, and every little bit helps, as far as cutting taxes is concerned.
Fourth, the FDIC amount guaranteed in bank accounts has been raised from $100,000 to $250,000. That is really not that big a deal, and it was bi-partisan--called for by both Obama and McCain, but it at least, is a positive thing.
I still think this whole "crisis" was contrived, and that the supposed credit freeze that was supposed to be the consequence of this was NOT a natural "had to happen" situation, but a "hostage" issue--the bigwigs who got jilted on Mondaythreatening and indeed, beginning to tie things up for "Main Street" unless enough pressure was put on legislators to pass the thing. But that's water over the dam now. It happened. The crisis, contrived or otherwise, is on the way to getting fixed. Let's move on.
There IS, however, a silver lining in this dark cloud, actually, several.
The biggest and best IMO, although probably NOT to my fellow conservatives in here, is that they did it with DEBT. They raised the national debt limit to over $11 trillion. That means a massive injection of money to the economy/a massive stimulus for the economy. Historically, this sort of thing has NOT resulted in the most likely negative consequence--significant inflation. I'm betting we won't see that inflation here either.
Secondly, as I have been going round and round with retailguy about, the infamous "mark to market" accounting regulation has been lifted. That alone might just have accomplished the improvement necessary.
Thirdly, some of the Bush tax cuts have been extended--how many, which ones, for how long?--I'm not sure. This was necessary to get the House Republican votes to get the thing passed, and every little bit helps, as far as cutting taxes is concerned.
Fourth, the FDIC amount guaranteed in bank accounts has been raised from $100,000 to $250,000. That is really not that big a deal, and it was bi-partisan--called for by both Obama and McCain, but it at least, is a positive thing.
I still think this whole "crisis" was contrived, and that the supposed credit freeze that was supposed to be the consequence of this was NOT a natural "had to happen" situation, but a "hostage" issue--the bigwigs who got jilted on Mondaythreatening and indeed, beginning to tie things up for "Main Street" unless enough pressure was put on legislators to pass the thing. But that's water over the dam now. It happened. The crisis, contrived or otherwise, is on the way to getting fixed. Let's move on.