patrick.net

anyone who wants to bet on extension of shorting ban tonight?

I would not bet against it...

FDIC now has the unlimited backing of Treasury, but how deep is Treasury's pocket?

I say, America, let's just not do this back and forth saga for TV show, the writing is on the wall, we will be debased or we will debase anyway. Let's just save some time and go straight to debasing the currency overnight, get it over with so we can start building up from the bottom.

F*ck the foreign lenders, they don't have enough aircraft carriers to come after us anyway. You might as well do this now before they build up their military muscle. Debase the USD, go to a new currency standard, wipe out all out existing debt obligations.

This is the destined path, only that the stupidity will take us 3 or 4 years to get there, if we are smart, we can get there right away. Most American people, the debtors, have almost nothing to lose. We produce enough food in this country to feed the world. Those most at risk are the rich people holding USD bond assets, f*ck them. Any American that is not in USD or USD fixed income will profit from this, in fact the more indebted he is, the better off he will be.

Patrick,

Are you in any position to engineer a web-based poll that lets people
detail the reason they are opposed to the rescue package in its current
form? I'm no expert myself, so I cannot contribute html or anything.
But I can make up some questions I'd like to see polled.

The main questions I think need asking are:

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1. What mechanism should the rescue plan employ:

a. purchase of bad assets from impaired financial institutions

b. purchase of preferred stock in impaired financial institutions
(preferred, senior, voting, convertible stock)

2. Give an approval rating for the following plans, from 1-10:

a. House Bill (2008-0928) (link)

b. Congress amended version (2008-1001) of House Bill (link)

c. Calomiris plan (link)

d. Stieglitz plan (link)

e. Soros plan (link)

3. How does the 2008-1001 Senate Bill score (1-10) in terms of how it
prescribes and implements the various detailed aspects of the rescue
plan:

a. mechanism of intervention (purchase of bad assets)

b. implementation of intervention (Treasury/Paulson discretion)

c. pricing mechanism of purchases (Paulson discretion)

d. taxpayer protection

e. CEO compensation and golden parachute limitations

f. transaction approval requirements

g. transaction reporting detail requirements

h. transaction reporting timeliness requirements

i. oversight by oversight board (Paulson, Bernanke, Cox, FHFA, HUD)

j. oversight by congress

k. oversight by the executive branch

l. oversight by the General Accounting Office

m. legal responsibilities of the Treasury Secretary and the oversight board

n. judicial review

o. conciseness of the bill (not being co-mingled with unrelated legislation)

--------------------------------------------------

By the way, I have searched high and low for web polls that address the bailout plan. I was astounded to find none at all. Search for "web poll bailout" got nothing, for example.

Patrick,

I just sent you a link to a thread on Paloaltoonline.com where the Realtors are still claiming "it is different here". It is just like your site from a few years ago.

Hilarious.

Patrick,

Om the topic of pitchforks, Senator Bernie Sanders is giving Paulson hell right now on the senate floor (see C-Span), and he put up a big poster board with a photo of Paulson. Definitely big enough to stick a pitchfork through.

FDIC now has the unlimited backing of Treasury, but how deep is Treasury’s pocket?
Someone pointed out to me that the Treasury's borrowing is limited to a debt ceiling.
The Public Debt Subject to Limit is the maximum amount of money the Government is allowed to borrow without receiving additional authority from Congress. Furthermore, the Public Debt Subject to Limit is the Public Debt Outstanding adjusted for Unamortized Discount on Treasury Bills and Zero Coupon Treasury Bonds, Miscellaneous debt (very old debt), Debt held by the Federal Financing Bank and Guaranteed Debt.

Here is a chart if you want to know what the carnage looks like.
The current Debt Limit was increased from $9.815 trillion to $10.615 trillion effective July 30, 2008.