Sum of All Intelligence

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By pinching his reptile fingers and sending out unmistakable brain signals, this guy is telling the Wall Street bankers, the donkey-stubborn Republicans in the House and Senate, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner exactly what to say and do. Thank fortune there are some with the will to resist.

Arianna Huffington was dead-on when she wrote the following: "The battle lines over how to deal with the banking crisis have been drawn. On the one side are those who know what needs to be done. On the other are those who know what needs to be done -- but won't admit it. Because it is against their self-interest.

"Unlike the conflict over the stimulus package, this is not an ideological fight. This is a battle between the status quo and the future, between the interests of the financial/lobbying establishment and the public interest.

"What needs to be done is hard but straightforward. As Martin Wolf of the Financial Times sums it up: 'Admit reality, restructure banks and, above all, slay zombie institutions at once.'

This 2.12. Cenk Uygur piece is also worth reading. It's about the cap on executive pay having been removed from the stimulus bill, how it seems as if the system of everyone having been bought and paid for is unchanged, and what kind of guy Geithner really is.

Andrew Sullivan said this morning on the Chris Matthews Show that President Obama would "end up nationalizing several major banks....and that the stress tests for these financial institutions that Treasury Secretary Geithner has proposed are the first step in explaining to the American public, for which nationalization is a charged word, why this has to happen."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 15, 2009 at 2:29 PM

comment #1

Josh Massey says ...

Jonah Goldberg, a few days ago: "The beauty of free markets is that firms learn from their mistakes or they lose money, shrink, and then go out of business. Governments, meanwhile, grow from their mistakes and learn to make money from them."

Posted by Josh Massey at February 15, 2009 2:53 PM

comment #2

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to Josh Massey: What big banks taking the taxpayer's money and giving their top guys fat bonuses and spreading the money around for the usual perks...which of these banks are shrinking and going out of business due to natural free-market forces? Are you and/or Jonah Goldberg taking mescaline? These guys need to be fired, dunked in ponds, exiled, made to work at McDonalds, sent to Devil's Island, etc.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at February 15, 2009 3:39 PM

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

That's actually a fairly decent John Boehner impersonation, though it could have used some more Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill.

Also Massey, you bring Jonah Goldberg? Seriously?

Posted by BurmaShave at February 15, 2009 3:53 PM

comment #4

62Lincoln says ...

Wells, please don't be so naive. In politics, money = power. That equation is true for republicans and democrats. Massey is referring to the fact that those in government, as they always have, found a way to profit/make money and gain more power from this sordid affair. That a few executives did likewise is simply the price of admission.

Posted by 62Lincoln at February 15, 2009 5:56 PM

comment #5

62Lincoln says ...

Oh, by the way, didn't Obama promise to clean this up? Why was his man Geithner backing the money play? Why did his team write the executive pay limits out of the bill (more precisely, influence the dropping of the limit)? Yes, Pelosi and crew added them back.

Posted by 62Lincoln at February 15, 2009 5:59 PM

comment #6

frankbooth says ...

When did Aykroyd begin to resemble Rip Torn?

Posted by frankbooth at February 15, 2009 6:51 PM

comment #7

D.Z. says ...

Lincoln: I imagine Obama hoped that not immediately tackling executive fraud would help him win more "anti-big government and pro-free market" Republicans to his final bill. But he had to learn the hard way that the GOP doesn't care about working with others outside of its party, unless it has an interest to do so, which is why only three Republican Senators supported the final bill-since their constituents would give them hell if they dragged out the vote over party lines.

Posted by D.Z. at February 15, 2009 7:18 PM

comment #8

JohnnyM says ...

The reason those banks didn't go out of business is because the government bailed them out.

Posted by JohnnyM at February 15, 2009 7:24 PM

comment #9

Josh Massey says ...

"The reason those banks didn't go out of business is because the government bailed them out."

Thank you. I thought that was pretty clear.

Posted by Josh Massey at February 15, 2009 8:24 PM

comment #10

nemo says ...

When is Jonah Goldberg going to get real job?

Posted by nemo at February 15, 2009 9:38 PM

comment #11

Josh Massey says ...

"What big banks taking the taxpayer's money ... are shrinking and going out of business due to natural free-market forces?"

Just to be clear, you really did answer your own question. It's the definition of the term "bail out" - without the government money, these companies would have withered away, to be replaced by smarter companies that can learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.

Natural free market forces were doing their time-tested job before the government stepped in. Now, the banking industry is not being allowed to learn and improve from its mistakes (many of which weren't the result of the free market, but previous, underreported government intrusions).

Posted by Josh Massey at February 16, 2009 9:10 AM

comment #12

D.Z. says ...

Josh: Um, actually, the banks fell apart precisely due to the free market, since they lobbied against the regulations which were meant to prevent another Great Depression. And they also got bailed out, because free market forces allowed them to hold the country's economy hostage.

Posted by D.Z. at February 16, 2009 5:17 PM

comment #13