More dishonesty? Or just ignorant?

I must have had my mind on this same debate from another time. My apologies, no one on this thread said that.

 

You really believe that? I don't. I think the whole banking system would have gone belly up.

 

If the bank situation has been stabilized, on what basis is the economy currently worse than the Great Depression?

 

I think that the dipsticks in DC are playing up the fears of those who put them in office. Is the economy bad, sure. Is it worse than the depression, not from what I have read.

(Not old enough to know first hand!:laugh: )

 

The whole banking system? Again, we're talking about a dozen banks or so MAX. Out of almost four thousand. Granted, that's about 9 more than what happens in a given year, but still, to say that our entire banking system is almost dead ignores reality.

What saved IndyMac was not Bushama's 1st attempt at TARP (they were long gone). The FDIC did what they were supposed to do. What is a better example of what could be done is what has happened in GA where a SuperRegional has absorbed two different failing bank systems on two different, seperate occasions. That's a more market-based solution, even if it was a shotgun marriage arranged by the Fed/FDIC. I think that would've happened more, and that's what might have caused the reaction. Would you want three or four SuperRegionals, max, in this country? Would you want one or two large insurers, max? Problem is, the former may be coming anyway, thanks to Bushama's two TARP programs. Wells bought Wachovia with the capital infusion (they can deny it all they want, but industry types know better). Other better capitalized banks who had to take the TARP 1 money upped deposit rates and lured untold millions from smaller banks/credit unions now on the precipice.

You may be right in general. If a bank of any size or any footprint had gotten into serious trouble, or if some of the coal mine canaries hadn't gotten the clue, maybe we'd be worse off today. However, we caught a break as to timing. The plunge of oil markets, the holiday season, a changing perception because the attention of a nation was focused on a presidential race of historic proportions, all gave people something to think about other than Wall Street.

And I have gamed out a time or two what would have happened, given what we know now, if TARP 1 hadn't happened. I know one thing: just this last week, an announcement came down that a federal lending arm will be loosening some lending guidelines back to the mess that started this mess. We're back to the notion that "Come one, come all' to get a house, down payment or no, closing costs in had or no, at least in one lobe of Big Brother's mind. We have not learned. Let's hope the market has.

 

I still do.

 

It isn't, and I hope it comes nowhere near such a condition.

 

Hey, Tom, do you think there may need to be a size limit as to how large these financial institutions can be? Maybe we need to get out of the "too big to allow to fail" mode.

 

We don't have a gold standard, PL. And I doubt we'll ever go back to one. We gotta play the hand we have been dealt. A whole lot of things would be different in this country if I could have my wish list put into practice. The same with everyone else who posts on this board I would imagine.

 

So you admit that the current economy is "nowhere near such a condition" as the Great Depression.

So when Obama says this is the worst economy since the great depression...

Is he dishonest or ignorant?

 

Yes, there have been runs on banks. They would have been a lot worse if banks like Wachovia, Citi Bank and National City Bank had been allowed to go under. I have to admit that that was due to the efforts of the Bush administration which passed a bailout package about the same size as Obama's but without the necessary controls.

 

I would say 0, that is ZERO!

 

Dishonesty? Ignorance? More like diabolism!

I believe his agenda is to create the illusion of a crisis so he can exploit it to enact his radical socialist agenda. He certainly wants us to think that it's as bad as the Great Depression.

 

I am afraid the illusion may become reality. O"bama with his god complex may try to do what Hitler did in wake of the Great Depression in Germany. The question is how much support would he get from those who have an epiphany of some sort each time he appears.

 

As Baron Rothschild quoted
"GIVE ME THE CONTROL OVER A NATION'S currency and I care not who makes it'LAW."
and President James Garfield quoted. " WHOEVER CONTROLS THE VOLUME OF MONEY IN ANY COUNTRY IS MASTER OF AL IT'S LEGISLATION AND COMMERCE."

wHEN gOVERNMENT STEPS IN TO HELP YOU, THEY REALLY MAKE THINGS WORSE.

 

Bumped because I thnk that it might be nice for KenH to answer the question directly.

Not holding my breath though.