Bearish welfare queens

Stjæler lige det her citat fra John Cole:

The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. They have lost “confidence” in each other, you see, because none of these oh-so-wise captains of the universe have any idea what kinds of devalued securities sit in one another’s portfolios.

So they have stopped investing. The biggest, most respected investment firms threaten to come crashing down. You can’t have that. It’s just fine to make it harder for the average Joe to file for bankruptcy, as did that wretched bankruptcy bill passed by Congress in 2005 at the request of the credit card industry. But the big guys are “too big to fail,” because they could bring us all down with them.

Enter the federal government, the institution to which the wealthy are not supposed to pay capital gains or inheritance taxes. Good God, you don’t expect these people to trade in their BMWs for Saturns, do you?

In a deal that the New York Times described as “shocking,” J.P. Morgan Chase agreed over the weekend to pay $2 a share to buy all of Bear Stearns, one of the brand names of finance capitalism. The Federal Reserve approved a $30 billion—that’s with a “b”—line of credit to make the deal work.

Det frie marked er fint, så længe man kan score kassen på det. Men den dag, at risikoen, der følger med, stikker sit grimme fjæs frem, så er det godt nok ikke så fint længere. Så løber vi hjem til mor og sladrer.

Reelt er der vel ingen, der ved, hvad der ville være sket, hvis man i stedet lod Bear Stearn styrte ned i flammer – jeg har personligt svært ved at tro, at konsekvenserne vil være værre.

De fleste er vist enige om, at det største problem i hele balladen er, at ingen reelt ved, hvad noget er værd, fordi alting er syltet ind i lag på lag af gearede investeringer, der til overflod er baseret på junk bonds forklædt som the real thing rent kreditrating-mæssigt.

Hvis man i stedet for diverse redningsaktioner havde ladet Bear Stearn falde, så måske, bare måske, kunne det have sat gang i en proces, hvor man fandt ud af, hvad tingene reelt er værd. Det ville have gjort ondt, javel – men til gengæld kunne man så få gjort boet op og komme videre, samt forhåbentlig lære noget af det.

Nu trækker man bare pinen ud, og det eneste alle lærer er, at den gamle sandhed om, at hvis man skylder banken 100.000 kroner, så er det ens eget problem, men hvis man skylder banken 100.00.000 kroner, så er det bankens problem, den faktisk er god nok.

Boet efter alle de kreative finansgenier skal gøres op under alle omstændigheder, så hvorfor ikke komme i gang?

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