Comments on: Financial Mess Heats Up

By: Darrell Prows

Darrell Prows — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:33:47 +0000

In the Bear Stearns instance, a stock that sold above $30 on Friday was worth only $2 before the market opened again on Monday morning. It is this which Krugman is labeling as at least a partially reasonable outcome.

In the instance of Countrywide, the fall came in slow motion, and at least some of the perpetrators were able to lay their risk off on latecomers. On the other hand, many of the folks still in the stock when B of A brought the price down to $6 and change were “bottom fishers” (Wilbur Ross picked up the remains of Option one from H & R Block today), and also would not qualify as innocent bystanders.

By: Ugly. REALLY Ugly. « The Krile Files

Ugly. REALLY Ugly. « The Krile Files — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:38:49 +0000

[...] Financial Mess Heats Up The financial mess that our country is in is heating up… big time. Hold on folks, it’s really going to be a rough ride: WHAT are the consequences of a world in which regulators rescue even the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed helped create the titanic credit mess we are in? Will the consequences be […] [...]

By: alrudder

alrudder — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:08:28 +0000

The sad irony of all of this is that the person who, in the last 8 years, has done the most to regulate the markets and save capitalism from itself was: Eliot Spitzer.

By: bjerryberg

bjerryberg — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:01:57 +0000

To paraphrase Carville–it is the system stupid. There are quadrillions (!) of
dollars of worthless financial instruments on the books out there–which is its
nature not something that be bailed out successfully. Krugman is right to
sound the alarm but tragically mistaken if he thinks it is just a matter good
‘crisis mangement.’ The system is dead. Put it into Chapter 11.
We need a new system a la FDR’s Bretton Woods.

It is this systemic financial collapse and the fact that leaders do not want to
believe it is happening–that make the behind the scenes machinations
promoting a ‘Bloomberg option’ so dangerous–despite its pooh-poohing
by conventional wisdom addicts.

Sen Clinton needs to go in an FDR direction not a fiscal conservative mode.