Reply #68: Disagree. I think he's playing a shrewd game, and a long one too. [View All]

[anigbrowl]

Look, if Obama or Geithner comes on TV and says 'well, this is just fucked...look, we're taking over the biggest banks in the country and that's how it is', within 5 minutes the far right will blow a fuse and start with 'see! commie takeover! Man the barricades!'. OF COURSE they would be full of shit to say such a thing - but ~10-20% of the population + full of shit + guns is a bad combination. I'm sorry to put it so bluntly, but we are sitting on top of a delicate political situation right now. The GOP is imploding, and the titular head of the RNC is kissing Rush Limbaugh's feet - which would be funny, if it wasn't for the fact that Limbaugh is the standard bearer for a bunch of violently inclined bigots.

What Obama and Geither are doing is letting Wall Street come to them - I'm not thrilled about helping institutions like Citi etc., but I strongly prefer that they put themselves in the hands of the government rather than the government laying hands on them. If we nationalize in a way that looks like it's involuntary, it will create a political firestorm. We're not running from nationalization, but allowing it to occur as a smooth transfer of power rather than as a unilateral decision from DC.