Aw, man. Oh shit, that probably gives the impression I drive a beetle and use a PDP-10…

I also keep it towards the back of the fridge, where it’s colder and people are less likely to see it.

It could be because the banks are hogging it all.

We’ve gotta get that crap back out to the people!

mikey

I saw a sign yesterday advertising crap at $1.39/pound. I picked up a couple of pounds. It’s good to have some on hand – you never know when guests will just drop in, and when they do they’re gonna want some crap.

Oh, wait. Hang on, let me take this call.

Ahem. I’m shocked and offended that Barack Obama has the insensitivity and temerity to laugh and joke while being interviewed on 60 mintues about the economy. Doesn’t he know how serious this is?

The Fed is legally empowered to make “loans”. If you are the executive and you need funds to nationalize, you have to appropriate them.

Thru congress.

So if you can make the case that the banks are illiquid rather than insolvent, that is, that these “legacy assets” are actually undervalued due to the economy being in the bucket rather than worthless in an absolute sense, you can present this as the best solution.

Plus, of course, if you give people enough free money and they buy the crap from the banks, the banks can (theoretically) get private capital and become financially healthy again. If you offer people free money and they STILL don’t buy the crap from the banks, you’ll know the banks are actually and officially insolvent and you’ll have to take them into receivership, but at that point nobody will be able to argue with you.

If you think about it politically rather than financially, it’s a pretty good plan…

mikey

Because (a) the current plan is for the government to “take the toxic assets off the banks’ books,” i.e. private profit, public risk; (b) it leaves in charge the same greedy clowns who got us here — why argue over their bonuses, when we could just FIRE THEM? — (c) once we own the banks, we can do the full & public accounting these clowns have resisted thus far. As Atrios has explained, part of the problem so far is that none of the banksters (I prefer “bakstas”) has to admit insolvency.

Sorry if that came off a bit rough. The needless suffering these clowns caused argues for pitchforks and tar, not arguing over bonuses.

So please, please, please don’t divulge the exact location of my gravesite to him.

“He will do till either you get elected president or someone else who meets your high standards comes along.”

That’ll leave a mark!