El Filosofo Liberal

This Time, Uncle Sam Has Got Our Back By Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Perry Mehrling The Washington Post Thursday, October 9, 2008; Page A21 Global markets have not been reassured by the coordinated interest rate cuts of several central banks or by recent congressional action, but they should be. Our bet is that financial markets will return to normal in short order and that the U.S. economy will squeak by with a moderate recession. Recapitalizing the banks and working out mortgages will take time, but the financial system will not collapse -- the government won't let it. The markets, of course, seem to be factoring in some probability of collapse. Why is this wrong? For starters, the biggest subprime mortgage gamblers have already failed, been nationalized or been married off, shotgun-style, to banks run by grown-ups. Yes, lots of small shoes may still drop, but the Paulson "buy-up" bill, and, ultimately, the Fed's ability to print money, provides the Treasury and Feder...

Fuente: http://www.nypost.com/seven/09182008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/why_bailouts_scare_stox_129619.htm?page=0 WHY BAILOUTS SCARE STOX LOCKING IN EQUITY LOSSES Paulson: Too confident he knows better than the market. Last updated: 6:46 amSeptember 18, 2008 Posted: 4:06 amSeptember 18, 2008 THE federal bailout of insurance giant AIG is the latest in a series of panicky interventions that add a capricious element of political uncertainty to the market for financial stocks. In essence, these bailouts give bondholders more protection than they'd otherwise see - at stockholders' expense. It's probably true that "something had to be done" in the case of AIG, the nation's largest insurance company with operations in 130-plus countries. But doing something could have meant doing something else - such as offering a secured bridge loan while AIG engaged in some orderly asset sales. As it is, the US government is charging AIG an interest rate above 11 percent for a wel...