On...Trying to Understand Wall Street

Robert Samuelson (old mustache man) from Newsweek has a decent article on trying to make sense of what's going on with big lenders.

You can find the article HERE

My 2 cents in a short version because I'm real busy at the moment.

But...the government (in my humble opinion) is setting a terrible precedent in bailing out AIG and Freddie Mac and Fannie May and Aunt May's Gooey Cookie Emporium and any other company (check this as the final (hopefully) blunder in the Bush White House). Free markets mean free markets--the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. Run your company better or you're done. Change with the times, evolve, or you go extinct.

The Federal Government should not supply corporate welfare any more than it already does. And more regulation? On what? Government bureaucrats looking over the shoulders of every S&P 500 company to see if they are running their company well? If they're so great they should be hired by the company in the first place at 10 times what the Fed will pay them. There needs to be a survival of the fittest mentality out in the market. If companies know they will be helped out they may take unnecessary risks. Or (as in AIG) the company gets a "loan" from taxpayers and the company defaults the government now owns billion dollar corporations. With that threat they may not take enough risks. And the gov't taking over a company can't possibly be a good idea. The government doesn't run anything at a profit. They run big deficits. Creeping socialism at its finest, even if its unintentional.

One last thing, though I stated this way before I had a blog (trust me), giving tax payers "stimulus" checks was the stupiest idea in the world. It has already created a ridiculous precedent. Every time the economy gets indigestion the politicians will start calling for another round of checks (my Senator Carl Levin has just suggested this possibility). It's never going to end. Don't get me wrong, thousand dollar checks are pretty sweet, but that doesn't make it right. We just got one and now they want to do it again. We aren't even in a recession! (or at least the definition of a recession that now is old fashion). If we don't have 3% growth every quarter the doom and gloom from MSM starts spouting off. The expectations of the common American is ridiculous. Everyone dreams of a utopia. IT DOESN'T EXIST. It will come to a point where a politician will call for one and anyone who votes against it (or vetoes it) will be charged as cruel and unfeeling against the little guy, the single-mother with six kids and a gimpy knee. Another Pandora's Box opened up. Someone needs to get that Greek chick a better lock.

Anyway, I'm done for now. Probably more later (unless a certain baby is born, then blog-posts may be slim for a while)