(no subject)

[dwenius]

I'm reading a lot of angry people against any form of bailout right now. Which, I have to admit, I find curious in some ways. Yes, the people who got us into this mess are rat bastards who should suck the pipe. Yes, I want to see the CEO's of these banks and mortgage companies strangled with their own intestines and their heads hung on pikes as a warning to the greedy. and so forth. But I am baffled at how many otherwise intelligent people seem to be ignoring the basic reality of the modern credit market. It doesn't matter that the top of the money food chain is filled with irreparable pig-fucking scum; those scum have owned the rest of us for decades, body and soul, and have more influence over national AND world affairs than it is healthy to contemplate. and when they don't get their way, bad things happen. The stock market is the world's most intractable toddler.

John Aravoisis at American Blog posted this summary of the credit crisis, including several practical examples of how the credit freeze affects the day to day lives of normal folks. Got all that?

I know many of you work in technology, and frequently buy hardware or software on Net-30 or Net-60 terms. The whole ability of vendors to offer those terms relies on lines of credit that are established as a basic opening move in starting a business. That is the credit that is freezing up; that, and car loans, and home loans, and bank to bank loans.

Personally, my own mortgage-- thankfully locked into a decent rate for a little longer-- will eventually flip over to the 6 month Libor. To be blunt, the risk of my mortgage interest rate moving from under 3% to almost 7% overnight is WAY more scary than a $700B increase in the deficit, in real, practical terms.

That's why I think some sort of intervention is necessary. but I have no ideas on how to frame such a proposal in a way that will be politically feasible. and at this point, I'm not sure anyone else does either.

Comments

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

What is your definition of a plan that "works"? Because the market drop yesterday is my definition of failure. and the market-- the childish, emotional, give me a lolly or I'll scream and shout market-- is going to keep failing in this manner.

[jgcr.livejournal.com]

And it's gained most of that back today. The market drop is not the problem -- we could easily throw a bunch of money around, make the market happy for now, and end up with the same credit crunch we were theoretically solving. *That* would be bad.

That said, something should be done, and soonish -- but it doesn't have to be all at once, it doesn't have to be no strings attached, and it certainly doesn't have to make Republicans happy.

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

It has to make at least a few Republicans happy or else it won't pass!

[jgcr.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to make a single house republican happy. Senate and W, yes, but they're more convincable.