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Re: White House says No More Bailouts
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration signaled strongly on Monday that troubled Wall Street shouldn't expect more rescues from Washington.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson declared that the current turmoil in markets and financial institutions ultimately will 'make things better.'
Both President Bush and Paulson worked to calm jitters about the latest developments '” the venerable Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filing for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. being forced to sell itself to Bank of America, and American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurance company, seeking emergency funding to shore up its balance sheet.
'Adjustments in the financial markets can be painful, both for people concerned about their investments and for the employees of the affected firms,' the president said, diverting from planned text for an appearance with visiting Ghanian President John Kufuor to address the economic situation. 'But in the long run I am confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient and can deal with these adjustments.'
Paulson, making a rare appearance before reporters in the White House briefing room, also sounded notes of optimism.
'What we are going through in the short term doesn't make anything easier,' he said. 'But in the longer term, it's going to make things better, because we've got excesses we need to work through.'
Paulson said he is taking Monday's stock tumble as a good sign '” because the fall was less-severe than expected and occurred in a relatively orderly way. 'I think we're making progress,' he said.
Bush said that federal policymakers are 'focused on the health of the financial system as a whole' and Paulson added later that 'we do not take '” and I don't take '” lightly ever putting the taxpayer on the line to support an institution.' While Paulson didn't categorically rule out future Washington bailouts, his and Bush's comments, taken together, strongly suggested none will be forthcoming.
The federal government seized mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week, and engineered the sale of faltering Bear Stearns Cos. to J.P. Morgan & Co. in March by providing a government loan to complete the deal. But Paulson said the previous situations were 'very very different' than Lehman's circumstances.
'Moral hazard is something I don't take lightly,' Paulson said, referring to the belief that when the government steps in to rescue a private company it encourages other companies to engage in risky behavior.
He said he 'never once' considered having the federal government step in and supply any money to resolve the crisis at Lehman Brothers, the nation's fourth largest investment bank which faced huge losses on its mortgage holdings. Starting Friday, Paulson participated in three tense days of negotiations at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in which he held firm to this position, and other financial firms then lost interest in trying to buy Lehman. That forced Lehman to file for bankruptcy protection on Monday.
With the current financial crisis rooted in the problems in the housing market, Paulson sounded positive there, too.
'There is a reasonable chance that the biggest part of the housing correction can be behind us in a number of months '” I'm not saying two or three months but in months as opposed to years,' he said.
Bush said that he, his advisers at the White House and officials 'throughout my administration' are focused intently on the problems and how to 'reduce disruptions and minimize the impact.' Paulson said the government will need additional 'major authorities to wind down financial institutions that aren't banks' over the longer-term to deal with the fallout and prevent similar problems in the future. But he did not detail what those are and said they would take time to wind through Congress.
With candidates pointing at the Bush administration for some share of the blame for the economic turmoil, Paulson said he's not focused on politics and will 'leave history to the historians.'
But he said that Bush's economic policies have been sound and that some of the regulatory and legal structures that have been in place for years '” if not decades '” are part of the problem.
'I'm playing the hand that was dealt me,' Paulson said.
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
The Bush administration signaled strongly on Monday that troubled Wall Street shouldn't expect more rescues from Washington.
Be careful saying such things.:nervous:
Henry Paulson declared that the current turmoil in markets and financial institutions ultimately will 'make things better.'
This is true. We need a major correction to our system, and this helps in that regard.
There's more corrections to come though. Many more.
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
Bush is an idiot....the Fed just pumped 70 billion in to "helping Wall St".....which is basically just like a sub prime loan....giving money to people and/or corporations who can't afford to pay their bills. Fuck those huge Wall St corporations and all these bullshit banks. Let them fold. Our whole economy is based on spending and illusion....it is just so fucked. House of Cards and the crumbling of the modern day Roman Empire.
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
GOOD. GREAT CALL BY BUSH.
Finally. You jackass corporations made bad fuckin' decisions, you were handing out loans to people who couldn't pay for them because "you had to meet your quota", and now you expect, Bush, the government and the U.S. taxpayer to bail out your ass.
No Dice.
Great show as always Mr. Bush!
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
GOOD. GREAT CALL BY BUSH.
Finally. You jackass corporations made bad fuckin' decisions, you were handing out loans to people who couldn't pay for them because "you had to meet your quota", and now you expect, Bush, the government and the U.S. taxpayer to bail out your ass.
No Dice.
Great show as always Mr. Bush!
"As always"??... Did you forget about Bear Sterns?? They did exactly what you just said & Bush bailed them out. Sheeez
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
Axlin08 wrote:GOOD. GREAT CALL BY BUSH.
Finally. You jackass corporations made bad fuckin' decisions, you were handing out loans to people who couldn't pay for them because "you had to meet your quota", and now you expect, Bush, the government and the U.S. taxpayer to bail out your ass.
No Dice.
Great show as always Mr. Bush!
"As always"??... Did you forget about Bear Sterns?? They did exactly what you just said & Bush bailed them out. Sheeez
You advocating a depression in hopes of an Obama win? They had to be bailed out. Had they not, the stock market would have likely crashed.
I'm not fond of bailouts either, but sometimes its necessary when looking at the overall situation. The Bear Stearns fiasco was an attempt at a bit of economic damage control and placing a band aid on a near fatal wound. Not bailing them out could have caused a huge domino effect.
I do agree with pretty much everyone in this section that we cant keep bailing out every single corporation that fucks up.
The Dow Jones (an indicator of the average of stocks in general) was 3,310 when Clinton took office. It was 10,887 when he left. It's now only 10,900.
Stop trying to blame this on the Clinton credit card.:laugh:
Re: White House says No More Bailouts
Credit card?? He left a surplus unlike Reagan & the Bush's.
As for Bailouts, I'm not saying that to support Obama, I'm just informing and correcting Axlin08 that Bush taking a hard line now doesn't mean he's always stood a hard line. He bailed out Bear Sterns & Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. So Axlin08 shouldn't go saying "Fuck them they shouldn't be bailed out" when he bailed out 2 of those corporations in the last 6 months. Bush is only saying no more now because he knows it's time for him to just ride it out the rest of his term & let the shit fall where it may, he's a lame duck.
