Robert Oak's blog

New COP Report - Guarantees Created Significant Moral Hazard

On Friday you were probably bowled over by the unemployment rate. So astounded, we missed this major report release by COP, the Congressional Oversight Panel on TARP.

The Report, Guarantees and Contingent Payments in TARP and Related Programs is another damning condemnation on corporate socialism to the point of moral hazard. Yet, at the same time, the report says taxpayers will likely profit from the huge TARP gamble. Well, well, if the government is turning the world into a glorified casino with U.S. taxpayer money, all the while guaranteeing the bonuses profits of large banks, at least it looks like we won't take the loss.

Must Read Posts - Sometimes you just can't say it better for November 8, 2009

On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read #1

Paul Krugman hits it out the park to prove Reaganomics did not do this nation, especially the middle class, a lot of good. Read Reagan! Reagan! Reagan! I must also borrow Krugman's graph on the history of tariffs in the U.S.

U.S. Tariffs

Sunday Morning Comics - Where's the Beef Edition

Sponsored by the taxpayer funded jobs program - Loot luggers wanted for executive bonuses, graft, greed and corruption payola hauling. Must be able to lift two tons. No sticky fingers need apply.
Cup O' Joe

 

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!

 

Friday Movie Night - The CCC

hot buttered popcorn It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

 

Considering today's double digit unemployment rate, I thought looking at government run employment programs of the past might be a good place to start. PBS, (a really crappy video site, no embedding) has a documentary of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal jobs program, online. Click below to watch:

AE CCC thumb

 

One on the FDIC & SEC:

Hearing on Too Big to Fail Bill

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing, Systemic Regulation, Prudential Matters, Resolution Authority and Securitization last Thursday.

What was rare is almost all of the experts said basically the same thing, the too big to fail bill is TARP on Steroids, a disaster, making TARP permanent de facto.

Congressman Brad Sherman sums it up:

 

Friday Movie Night - Close to Home

 It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

 

I debated about showing this Frontline video because it is personal stories. But the film came back in my mind over the week. Some of the images of perfectly capable Americans, people who played by all of the rules, now living on the tail end of the American dream, brought to you by Visa and Mastercard, the amazing number of people over 40 who cannot get a job, the fear, the terror, the broken spirits, haunted me over the week. This same story is being played out in every coffee shop or beauty salon in America. The only thing that bothers me is the fear. People need to turn that fear into anger, get active and demand a good job and their American dream back.

 

Too Big to Fail Bill

The House Financial Services Committee, along with the Treasury Department has proposed a new too big to fail piece of legislation.

The bill is titled The Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 and the bill text is here.

The bill creates an inter-agency regulatory agency called the Financial Services Oversight Council.

The bill appears to be once again, making the Federal Reserve super regulator but with wording to hide this fact.

Removes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s restraints on the Fed’s authority over companies subject to consolidated regulation and provides specific authority to the Fed and other federal financial agencies to regulate for financial stability purposes and quickly address potential problems.

The bill also seems to be not reinstating Glass-Steagall, instead putting some watered down restrictions, but only going forward. Seemingly existing institutions will not be broken up.

Friday Movie Night - Frontline: The Warning

 It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

 

Frontline has a must watch documentary on the woman who tried to warn on derivatives and the shadow banking system and the men who stopped her. Realize if she had prevailed the financial crisis probably never would have happened.

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