On Mar 17, 10:46*am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message

...
On Mar 17, 10:03 am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:





"F. George McDuffee" wrote in
messagenews:nu6tt358a9bs9t5c1rjvvnucn61cg4kds9@4ax .com...

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:39:01 -0700 (PDT), Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

One for the record books...

The US taxpayer is paying for this one.

How do you like being a part owner of a bankrupt bank?

There are likely more to come.

And the Iraq War is costing you $12 billion a month.

How deep are your pockets?

TMT
==============
Q: why do we have to read a UK paper to get this depth and
quality of analysis?

Because the quality of the analysis isn't necessarily very good. They've
focused on the view from their side of the world, and on the consequences
that they may face. It's actually a short-sighted view, in light of the
longer consequences of the situation. We're more focused on the
consequences
*we* may face.

For a short but penetrating take on it, Krugman's column today is more
relevant to what's going on here, "The B Word":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/op...rugman.html?hp

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Ed Huntress- Hide quoted text -

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Good point about the different viewpoint.
But then there is that nagging issue of why this was a weekend
deal...with no one admiting problems until the default happened.
This has not been lost upon the international investment
community...who holds our IOUs.
What they think DOES matter.

What they think is that we should operate our economy in a way that benefits
them, and to hell with us. Those IOUs are a serious matter but nowhere near
as serious as the prospect of a depression or a collapse of the US economy..
That's why, as Krugman says, Bernanke *had* to act to stop the dominoes. Or
at least to get started at it.

Get ready for a hell of a recession.

Very likely a sharp one, but I'm skeptical about how broad or long it will
be.

Nobody knew how extensive the house of cards really was, because there was
no way to sort out the ad hoc network of relationships among all of those
derivitaves and bogus/inflated securities. Likewise, nobody knows who will
be left holding the bag when it all collapses. The biggest problem for
consumers who didn't hold that debt, right now, is the credit crunch and,
potentially, an economy that has a lot less liquidity. We may *not* be
holding the bag for the big numbers. Again, nobody really knows.

I have also wondered what it would be like to live through a
depression...maybe we will get a chance to see?

That's a chance I'd gladly forgo, thanks. d8-)

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Ed Huntress- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The ones holding the bag will be the American taxpayer...there is
absolutely no doubt about that.

The American taxpayer is struck for the Bear Stearns mess.

And those IOUs do matter....note that they are being called in.

The value of the dollar...the price of gold...all signs that the US is
in big trouble.

TMT