Thursday, November 13, 2008

Henry Paulson changes directions on TARP

I'm disappointed the federal bailout is not working. Paulsen is changing course. It appears he doesn't know what he's doing. It reminds me of John McCain's campaign - a little of this, a dash of that, and a whole lot of whatever.

My mistake was giving him the benefit of doubt.
It was described as such a bad situation that I assumed the experts would come together and find a responsible way out of the mess. I don't know that these people are smart, though. Maybe they're smart in small ways.

I'm so sick and tired of plain old bad managers and leaders.
It doesn't do any good to have an ideology if you can't make things happen.
Even if I don't agree with your ideology, you should be able to implement.

Originally, Paulsen was going to buy bad assets from the banks, etc. That would free up the balance sheet so banks can lend again. They gave away about 290 billion dollars to banks around the nation, but its done nothing.
Now, Henry Paulsen says their going to focus on consumer credit.
I don't like that idea.
It makes no sense to continue supporting a credit society. How consumers handle credit is partially responsible for the current mess.
I think the idea is that when consumers can get credit again, that will be the 'charge' the economy needs to get jump-started.

I suggest we see more of the home mortgages refinanced by the banks themselves - no government intervention.
I suggest the government invest in infrastructure - now. Barack Obama will do it, but we need it now. That will create jobs, which will create money, which will create demand.

Should the government bail out the automakers?
Wow - I see it's important to regional economies and individual employees. I get it.
But, I also think its crazy to continue bailing people out.
I still have a good recollection of Lee Iacocca getting bailout money for Chrysler in the 80's. Its only twenty years later and we need to do it again? No, I say.

I've also become disillusioned with the government's efforts so far. Although I don't expect to see overnight results, I expect to see less volatility and less flailing around.
It seems they're trying to find a way to artificially get things going.
Why not go back to the fundamentals and work from there. We've been in the fairy tale world for too long. Invest in producing things - invest in developing new ideas - start making credit an exception rather than the rule.
I'd rather see that than additional bailouts.

Nobody listens to me, and I don't expect they should. I don't have any specialized knowledge. I'm responding with emotion.
But, it appears to me that the people who supposedly do have specialized knowledge aren't doing anything that well themselves - so why not listen to people like me who are just trying to make sense of it all.

In essence, I gave the Bush Administration a chance - they mucked it up, and I'm done with them.

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