July 22nd, 2008
This tortoise is going to blahg about the economy now. Sorry.
I saw this headline, More Than $1 Trillion Needed to Solve Housing Crisis, and I thought "it can't cost that much to house all the homeless people..." I mean, consider all the empty houses and empty lots ...
But the "housing crisis" isn't people who need housing, it's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac! The latest bankrupt institutions!
And this one guy from some corporation named after himself somehow gets to make grand pronouncements about the game we call the economy (which is, by the way, hardly economical). The article linked above says:
$25 billion--or even the GAO's worst-case $100 billion estimate--pales in comparison to the cost of doing nothing, says Nouriel Roubini, NYU professor and chairman of RGE Monitor.
"We have to find a solution where government intervention prevents a disorderly outcome" in the housing market that leads to a "systemic banking crisis," Roubini says.
The housing bill, which earmarks $300 billion to backstop mortgages after lenders agree to lower mortgage payments, is "a step in the right direction" but "doesn't do enough," he says, predicting the government will ultimately need to spend more than $1 trillion."
But the last two times I turned on the radio and it happened to be NPR, I heard people reassuring me that the banks are fine, and deposits are insured by the FDIC. (Is the FDIC federal, or a corporation?) Well, if "the banks are fine" is the official story, then I know what to think."We have to find a solution where government intervention prevents a disorderly outcome" in the housing market that leads to a "systemic banking crisis," Roubini says.
The housing bill, which earmarks $300 billion to backstop mortgages after lenders agree to lower mortgage payments, is "a step in the right direction" but "doesn't do enough," he says, predicting the government will ultimately need to spend more than $1 trillion."
While I was typing this up, Vachel Lindsay's "On the Road to Nowhere" came on (read by Bob Large). A couple favorite blebs:
Did you dare to make the songs
Vanquished workmen need?
Did you waste much money
To deck a leper's feast?
Love the truth, defy the crowd
Scandalize the priest?
....
Lust for velvet in their hearts,
Pierced with Mammon's spears,
All but a few fanatics
Give up their darling goal,
Seek to be as others are,
Stultify the soul.
Vanquished workmen need?
Did you waste much money
To deck a leper's feast?
Love the truth, defy the crowd
Scandalize the priest?
....
Lust for velvet in their hearts,
Pierced with Mammon's spears,
All but a few fanatics
Give up their darling goal,
Seek to be as others are,
Stultify the soul.
Vachel, guide us out of the land of Babbitry to the Tree of Laughing Bells!!!
- Location:zomba, Springfield
- Music:"Through the Ankh" by Hossam Ramzy
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