Bush Convenes Plunge Protection Team.

[Bushwick Bill]

Uh, this can't be good. Somebody ask the bushbots why he would support such socialist intervention. ;)

Bush convenes Plunge Protection Team

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 07/01/2008

Bears beware. The New Deal of 2008 is in the works. The US Treasury is about to shower households with rebate cheques to head off a full-blown slump, and save the Bush presidency. On Friday, Mr Bush convened the so-called Plunge Protection Team for its first known meeting in the Oval Office. The black arts unit - officially the President's Working Group on Financial Markets - was created after the 1987 crash.

<snip>

Judging by a well-briefed report in the Washington Post, a mood of deep alarm has taken hold in the upper echelons of the administration. "What everyone's looking at is what is the fastest way to get money out there," said a Bush aide.

Emergency measures are now clearly on the agenda, apparently consisting of a mix of tax cuts for businesses and bungs for consumers. Fiscal action all too appropriate, regrettably.

We face a version of Keynes's "extreme liquidity preference" in the 1930s - banks are hoarding money, and the main credit arteries of the financial system remain blocked after five months.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/money/2008/01/07/ccview107.xml

[spanone]

1. he'd best do something because his economic policies are a total failure

[ananda]

2. Money problem? No problem sez Bush..

.. we'll just print more and send checks
to everyone.

[Mountainman]

3. Hey, what about letting the market take it's course? Oh I forgot, that is usefull only when it

benefits the wing nuts.

[Naturyl]

7. Exactly.

Markets are sacrosanct when money is flowing to the Repukes, but any kind of intervention is fair play when there's a threat to their fortunes.

[onyourleft]

4. Those tax cuts for the top 1%...

...worked so well the first time by trickling down that he wants to do it again? :sarcasm:

[Naturyl]

5. More tax cuts?

During wartime? Good thinking! It's brilliant. Tax cuts magically solve everything - especially when you're spending money hand over fist.

"Fiscal responsibility?" More like "get rid of your income, max out the Visa, and hand the bill to someone else."

[pushycat]

6. "Democrat Congress?" does the Telegraph work for Bush/GOP?

[originalpckelly]

9. They have a connie bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_telegraph

[originalpckelly]

8. Tax cuts without spending cuts are government interference in the economy.

We need to learn that they pump fake money into the economy. This whole nation has been artificially supported with these tax cuts that aren't backed up by corresponding spending cuts. Bush wants to keep power, while making himself look like he's giving it up.

[Naturyl]

12. It's not so much "fake" money

As it is money borrowed from the Chinese, selling every American citizen further into debt.

Yay! I like being sold into economic slavery so other people (especially the obscenely rich) can get meaningless tax cuts. It's got a funky beat, and I can really dance to it.

[blogslut]

10. Some day, China is going to want us to repay those loans

Fuck you GWB.

[originalpckelly]

11. Indeed!

:applause:

The Bush tax cuts killed the economy by interfering with the self regulation of the market.

[Naturyl]

13. Well, I wouldn't go so far as to actually

Advocate that libertarian Chicago school nonsense. But it's fun pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of those who do allegedly advocate it - namely the neo-cons.

[originalpckelly]

14. What I mean by self regulation is far different from what you're thinking.

I'm talking basic supply/demand ideas, not justified laws that protect people from big companies.